MASTER 

NEGA  TIVE 

NO.  91-80193 


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AUTHOR: 


QUIGLEY,  DOROTHY 


TITLE: 


SUCCESS  IS  FOR  YOU 


PLACE: 


NEW  YORK 


DA  TE : 


1899 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 
PRESERVATION  DEPARTMENT 


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Qtiigley,  Dorothy. 

Success  is  for  yop,  by  Dorothy  Qnigley  •..    New  York, 
E.  P.  Dntton  ft  co.,  189T;  1899» 

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Cobnnltta  (Bnt^ii^tp 

THE  LIBRARIES 


Success  is  for  You 


BY 

DOROTHY  QUIGLEY 

Author  of  "  Everybody's  Fairy-Godmother  " 


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NEW  YORK 

E.  P.  DUTTON  &  COMPANY 

81  West  Twenty-third  Street 


1899 


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Copyright 
E.  P.  BUTTON  &  CO. 
1897 


Dedicated  to 

YOU 

With  Most  Cordial  Wishes 

FOR  Your  Success 


Vbe  Itntehctbockec  pttm,  1U#  Becl 


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CONTENTS. 


CHAmx 


I.— 


II.- 
III.- 
IV.- 

V.— 


VI.- 
VII.- 

VIII.- 

IX.- 

X.- 

XI.- 


What     Experiments    Re- 
veal        .         .        .        . 
•The  Upbuilding  Process 
•An  Inspiriting  Symbol    . 
To    Make     Yourself    a 
Value      .... 
The   Boy  who    Went   to 
Bombay     .... 
-Two  WHO  Conquered 
-Success  in  Cheerfulness 

AND  Concentration 
•The  Gain  from  Studying 

Your  Fellow-men  . 
To  Attract  Success 
Trust  Thyself 
The  Mien  of  a  Poor  Man 


PACK 
I 

22 
28 

45 

55 

61 
66 

79 

84 


vi 


CONTENTS. 


: « 


CRAPTKS 

XII.- 


PACK 


p. 


#;■,  j 


f  j 


-Project      Your      Work 
Aright     .        .        .        .99 
XIII. — Noble  Self- Assertion      .  no 
XIV. — The  Wisest  Sympathy      .  118 
XV. — Whom  and  What  to  Avoid  i  26 
XVI. — The  Wisdom  of  the  Opti- 
mist    130 

XVII. — How  to  Train  for  Suc- 
cess    138 

XVIII. — Others  Have  Mastered, 

You  Can.        .        .         .  147 
XIX. — She   Made  Drudgery  an 

Art 151 

XX. — The   Moths  in  the  Furs  158 

XXI. — The  World  Needs  You     .  163 


"  For  though  gamesters  say  that  the  cards  beat  all 
the  players,  though  they  were  never  so  sldlful,  yet 
in  the  contest  we  are  now  considering  the  players  are 
also  the  game  and  share  the  power  of  the  cards." 

*•  Thought  is  all  light  and  publishes  itself  in  the 
universe.  It  will  flow  from  your  actions,  your 
manners,  and  your  face.  It  will  bring  you  friend- 
ship or  enemies." 

"  Yes,  here  in  this  miserable,  hampered,  despic- 
able  actual  wherein  thou  even  now  standest.  Here 
or  nowhere  is  thy  ideal.  Work  it  out  therefrom, 
and  working  believe,  live,  be  free.  Fool !  the  ideal 
is  in  thyself ;  the  impediment,  too,  is  in  thyself ; 
thy  condition  is  but  the  stuff  thou  art  to  shape  that 
same  ideal  out  of.  What  matter  whether  such  stuff 
be  of  this  sort  or  that  so  the  form  thou  give  it  be 
heroic,  be  poetic  ?  Oh,  thou  that  pinest  in  the  im- 
prisonment of  the  actual  and  criest  bitterly  to  the 
gods  for  a  kingdom  wherein  to  rule,  know  this 
truth:  the  thing  thou  seekest  is  already  with  thee, 
here  or  nowhere,  couldst  thou  only  sec" 


'  1 


SUCCESS  IS  FOR  YOU 


CHAPTER  I. 

WHAT  EXPERIMENTS  REVEAL. 

YOU  are  either  a  magnet  that 
attracts  all  things  bright,  de- 
sirable, helpful,  healthy,  and  joy- 
ous ;  or,  one  that  draws  all  things 
disagreeable,  gloomy,  undesirable, 
unhealthy,  and  destructive. 

You  either  respond  to  and  vi- 
brate with  the  immense  tide  of 
happiness  and  success  in  the  world  ; 
or,  you  allow  yourself  to  be  en- 
gulfed in  the  great  currents  of  woe 
and  misery;    or,  purposeless  and 


11 


I 


2  SUCCESS  IS   FOR   YOU 

unaware  of  the  power  within  your- 
self, you  drift  aimlessly,  sometimes 
riding  high  on  the  crest  of  a  sweep- 
ing wave  of  prosperity,  and  some- 
times sinking  so  low  as  to  be  drawn 
down  and  almost  lost  in  an  under- 
tow of  despair. 

In  brief,  you  are  either  a  success 
or  a  failure  ;  or  you  are  neither  one 
nor  the  other,  which  is  almost  as 
bad  as  being  a  failure.  If  you  are 
not  a  success,  it  is  imperatively 
urgent  that  you  should  discover 
why  you  are  not,  for  Success  is  for 
You. 

Perhaps  you  have  never  thought 
of  the  way  the  law  of  attraction, 
the  law  of  vibration,  and  the  law  of 
echo  act  through  you,  within  you. 


WHAT   EXPERIMENTS    REVEAL      3 

and  upon  you.  It  is  true  you  can- 
not  see  the  workings  of  these  in- 
visible laws,  but  you  can  perceive 
the  results  of  their  action.  Have 
you  ever  dissolved  silver  and  put 
it  into  clear  water  in  which  it  can- 
not be  seen,  and  then  made  an 
attractor  to  gather  up  the  invisible 
particles  of  the  metal  ?  A  sympa- 
thetic bit  of  silver  on  the  negative 
pole  of  a  battery  attracts  every 
atom  of  silver  in  the  water,  be  it 

j_as  small  as  a  mote  in  a  sunbeam. 

I  There  is  a  force  within  you  which 
properly  directed,  will  draw  condi- 
tions and  opportunities  of  success 
that  are  as  invisible  as  the  liquid 
silver  lost  in  water]  The  piece  of 
magnetized  silver  that  gathers  un- 


'  < 


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SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


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to  itself  all  the  particles  of  its  kind 
in  the  water  is  a  symbol  of  every 
thought  and  action  of  your  life. 
Your  every  thought  and  action  are 
magnetic  centres,  radiating  influ- 
ence that  attracts  or  repels  and 
determines  certain  outward  con- 
ditions. Your  thoughts  are  forces 
that  radiate  from  you  as  light  does 
from  a  star. 

Hold  in  your  hand  a  box  or  a 
piece  of  paper  and  ask  some  one 
to  produce  different  tones  until  you 
feel  the  paper  vibrate  in  your  hand. 
Place  several  violin  strings  in  a 
state  of  uniform  tension  over  a 
sounding  board  and  tuned  in  uni- 
son with  one  another,  and  go  to 
the  opposite  end  of  the  room  and 


WHAT   EXPERIMENTS   REVEAL      5 

sound  a  pipe  or  a  string  having 
the  same  pitch  as  that  of  the  three 
strings.     If  another  person  listens 
closely,   he  will  observe  that  the 
violin  strings  oscillate  sympathetic- 
ally from  the   effects  of  the  pipe 
sounded  in  the  opposite  end  of  the 
room.      This    simple    experiment 
shows  the  vibratory  effects  of  the  ex- 
ceedingly rare  and  elastic  ether  that 
fills  all  space.     It  is  a  mysterious 
messenger  and  conveys  information 
on  viewless  waves.     The  reciprocal 
and  reflexive    action    of  thought- 
force  in  this  all-pervading  electro- 
magnetic ether,  is  as  powerful,  nat- 
ural, and  understandable  as  are  the 
forces  that  produce  the  vibrations 
of  sound,  light,  heat,  and  color. 


6  SUCCESS   IS    FOR   YOU 

As  the  invisible  currents  of  air 
carried  the  tone  that  made  the 
paper  vibrate  in  your  hand  ;  or,  as 
the  unseeable  wind  rising  and  fall- 
ing upon  a  stringed  instrument 
produces  Eolian  melodies,  so  your 
invisible  thoughts  play  upon  the 
hearts  and  minds  of  your  fellow- 
beings.  You  awaken  responses 
according  to  the  kind  and  quality 
of  the  thought  you  project  and  in 
accordance  with  the  fineness  or 
coarseness  of  the  hearts  and  minds 
of  those  your  thought-forces  touch. 
The  chief  responsibility,  however, 
lies  with  you,  for  by  the  law  of  ac- 
tion and  re-action  which  is  as  simple 
in  the  spiritual  world  as  it  is  in  the 
physical  one,  your  thoughts  react 


S  ^ -^ 


WHAT   EXPERIMENTS   REVEAL       7 

upon  yourself.  The  reactionary 
character  of  emotion  in  the  spiritual 
and  of  motion  in  the  physical  world 
is  the  same.  The  ever-widening 
rings  made  by  a  pebble  tossed 
upon  the  smooth  surface  of  a  lake 
give  you  a  fine  hint  of  the  way  the 
thought  you  send  forth  acts  upon 
the  invisible  ocean  of  ether  that  sur- 
rounds and  interpenetrates  every- 
body and  everything.  The  waves 
caused  by  the  pebble  are  no  less 
real  than  the  vibratory  effect  caused 
by  every  word  that  conveys  an  idea 
either  thoughtfully  or  thoughtlessly 
spoken. 

If  you  doubt  that  thought  is  a 
force,  follow  the  work  now  being 
done   in    the  laboratory  of   mind- 


8 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR    YOU 


Study  at  Cambridge.     They  have 
means  there  for  investigating  and 
measuring   every   mental   process. 
The  time  required  for  mental  action 
and  re-action,  for  discrimination,  at- 
tention, association  of  ideas,  fatigue, 
and  all  that,  is  mathematically  re- 
corded.    Men    sleep   on   balances 
with  apparata  that  mark  the  slight- 
est  change   of    pulse,   respiration, 
circulation,  and  heat.      They  test 
themselves  with  mild  doses  of  nar- 
cotics, tonics,  and  other  nervines. 
They  multiply  or  reduce  air-press- 
ures over  the  entire  dermal  surface. 
They  select  a  square-inch  of  skin, 
and  with  every  known  test  educate 
it  for  months  ;  they  fatigue  definite 
muscle-groups;   they  measure  the 


WHAT   EXPERIMENTS    REVEAL      Q 

exact  time  and  force  of  imagina- 
tion, of  memory  and  will,  and  they 
explore  hypnotic  states.  Prof.  E. 
W.  Scripture  has  recently  made 
certain  discoveries  through  these 
interesting  experiments  that  will 
prove  of  practical  value  to  working- 
men. 

More  thrilling,  vitally  and  almost 
dramatically  interesting,  however, 
than  the  work  at  Cambridge  are 
the  experiments  of  Dr.  Elmer  Gates 
at  the  Laboratory  of  Psychology 
and  Mind-Art  at  Chevy  Chase,  Md. 

Dr.  Gates  holds  that  mind  activ- 
ities can  create  brain  structures. 
He  proves  his  theory  first  by  ex- 
perimenting on  dogs. 

A  certain    number    of    puppies 


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SUCCESS    IS    FOR    YOU 


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born  at  the  same  time  were  sub- 
jected  to   different  training,  with 
very  interesting  results.     A   num- 
ber were  put  in  a  dark  room  from 
the  moment  of  their  birth,  and  were 
not  permitted  to  see  a  ray  of  light. 
Another  group  were  allowed  to  live 
as  dogs  usually  do.  A  third  set  were 
given  most  extraordinary  training 
in  using  their  seeing  faculties.     At 
the  age  of  nine  months  all  the  pup- 
pies were  chloroformed.     The  first 
group  that  had  never  used  the  see- 
ing function  showed  an  undevel- 
oped cortex  in  the  seeing  area  of 
the  brain.     The  second  group  that 
had   led  regular  dog  lives  had  a 
number  of  cells  developed.      The 
educated  dogs,  not  only  had  a  larger 


WHAT   EXPERIMENTS    REVEAL    II 

number  of  brain  cells  than  any  of 
the  dogs,  but  the  cells  themselves 
were  more  highly  developed  and 
more  complex  in  their  internal 
structure  and  chemical  composition. 
Indeed,  they  had  a  greater  number 
of  brain  cells  than  any  dogs  of  the 
breed  ever  possessed. 

Professor  Gates  says  :  "  My  ex- 
periments demonstrate  that  every 
definite  mental  experience  produces 
a  definite  anatomical  or  molecular 
structure  in  some  particular  and 
definite  part  of  the  brain.  When  we 
see  any  color  or  hear  any  sound  long 
enough  to  remember  it,  the  process 
creates  structural  changes  in  the 
brain,  and  the  refunctioning  of 
those  structures  constitute  memory. 


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12 


SUCCESS    IS    FOR    YOU 


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The  association  of  memories  with 
each    other    is    accomplished    by 
means  of  interconnecting  fibres  and 
by  means  of  wave-motions  in  the 
brain  mass, — molar,  electrical,  and 
etheric."      Prof.   Gates   holds   the 
memory  of  the  emotion  of  hate  is 
embodied   in    different    structures 
than  a  memory  of  the  fear  of  a 
snake,  or  the  memory  of  one's  love 
for  a  mother.     Every  time  an  evil 
memory    refunctions    it    becomes 
stronger ;  every  time  such  memories 
are  associated  with  other  memories 
of  the  same  sort  a  criminal  domi- 
nancy  is  being  built  in  the  brain. 


«! 


CHAPTER    11. 

*THE     UPBUILDING    PROCESS. 

DOES  this  not  hint  to  you  that 
you  can  train  yourself  men- 
tally in  such  a  way  that  you  not 
only  change  the  cells  in  your  brain 
but  the  conditions  of  your  life  ? 

The  upbuilding  process  of  mental 
training  may  seem  intricate,  yet  it 
is  exceedingly  simple.  The  follow- 
ing on  the  way  to  give  up  smoking 
afifords  an  insight  into  the  philoso- 
phy of  Professor  Gates.  He  says : 
"  I  may  not  wish  to  give  up  the 
vice,  for  instance,  of  smoking.  My 
will,  therefore,  wills  me  to  smoke, 

and  I  smoke.     But  if  I  commence 

13 


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SUCCESS   IS    FOR    YOU 


to  build  in  my  brain,  a  new  series 
of  sense-memories,  images,  con- 
cepts, ideas,  emotions,  impulses, 
likes  and  dislikes,  conduct-memo- 
ries and  so  on  which  are  not  favor- 
able to  smoking  and  keep  these 
mentations  active  daily  until  the 
new  structures  become  dominant, 
then  I  will  no  longer  wish  to  smoke, 
and  I  will  quit.  I  speak  from  ex- 
perience." Thus  the  commonplace 
saying,  ''Change  your  mind"  is 
proved  to  be  really  possible  in  more 
ways  than  one. 

To  develop  new  sense-memories 
and  strengthen  them,  it  is  plainly 
shown  you  must  repeat  certain 
declarations  for  improvement,  just 
as  you  went  over  and  over  the  mul- 


THE    UPBUILDING    PROCESS       1 5 

tiplication  table  until  you  knew  it 
subconsciously.  Can  you  remem- 
ber when  you  learned  two  times 
two  are  four  ?  Does  it  not  seem 
that  you  always  knew  it  ?  Do  you 
not  say  it  without  seeming  to  think 
at  all  ? 

The  results  of  this  method  of 
mental  training  suggest  how  the 
apparently  idiotic  declarations  so  in- 
sistently iterated  and  re-iterated  by 
Christian  Scientists  may  be  effect- 
ive in  creating  healthy  states  of 
mind  and  conditions  of  body.  By 
asserting  over  and  over  what  they 
conceive  to  be  the  truth,  certain 
changes  may  take  place  in  the  brain 
structures  and  definite  m^ral memo- 
ries may  be  established  and  the 


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SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


conditions  they  have  been  declar- 
ing often  become  evident. 

Accidents  frequently  prove  that 
if  you  change  in  a  human  brain  any 
group  of  brain  cells  you  will  affect 
in  that  person's  mind  one  definite 
class  of  memories.  If  by  brain 
building  you  put  into  the  brain  a 
new  group  of  functioning  cells,  you 
add  a  new  class  of  memories  and 
give  that  person  really  more  mind. 

The  idea  of  developing  helpful 
sense-memories  is  put  to  test  with 
cheering  results  in  the  kindergar- 
tens. Courage  plays,  justice  plays, 
artistic,  charity,  laughter,  friend- 
ship, sympathy,  and  joy  plays  are 
all  designed  to  call  into  repeated 
action  some  one  desirable  emotive 


THE    UPBUILDING    PROCESS       1 7 

or  intellectual  state,  that  after  a 
time  may  become  habitual,  or  the 
expression  of  it  becomes  a  subcon- 
scious process.  The  boy  who  has 
learned  certain  gallantries  in  the 
etiquette  play  doffs  his  hat  to  a 
lady  without  thinking  he  has  been 
taught  to  do  so.  His  conduct-memo- 
ries act  thus,  as  quickly,  as  spon- 
taneously as  his  mental-memories 
do  when  he  recalls ''  two  times  two 
are  four." 

The  most  wonderful  result  of  the 
experiments  made  by  Professor 
Gates  was  the  discovery  that  certain 
states  of  mind  produced  chemical 
precipitates  in  the  body.   He  says  : 

"In  1879  I  published  a  report  of 
experiments    showing   that,  when 


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SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


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the  breath  of  a  patient  was  passed 
through  a  tube  cooled  with  ice  so 
as  to  condense  the  volatile  qualities 
of  the  respiration,  the  iodide  of 
rhodopsin,  mingled  with  these  con- 
densed products,  produced  no  ob- 
servable precipitate.  But,  within 
five  minutes  after  the  patient  be- 
came angry,  there  appeared  a 
brownish  precipitate,  which  indi- 
cates the  presence  of  a  chemical 
compound  produced  by  the  emo- 
tion. This  compound,  extracted 
and  administered  to  men  and  ani- 
mals, caused  stimulation  and  ex- 
citement. Extreme  sorrow,  such 
as  mourning  for  the  loss  of  a  child 
recently  deceased,  produced  a  gray 
precipitate ;   remorse,  a  pink  pre- 


THE    UPBUILDING    PROCESS       1 9 

cipitate,  etc.  My  experiments  show 
that  irascible,  malevolent,  and  de- 
pressing emotions  generate  in  the 
system  injurious  compounds,  some 
of  which  are  extremely  poisonous ; 
also,  that  agreeable,  happy  emo- 
tions generate  chemical  compounds 
of  nutritious  value,  which  stimulate 
the  cells  to  manufacture  energy." 

The  last  clause  of  the  foregoing 
suggests  why  hopeful,  cheerful 
people,  full  of  loving-kindness  keep 
their  youthful  appearance  so  much 
longer  than  disagreeable  folk  do. 
Energy  is  life. 

Experiments  have  demonstrated 
that  every  emotion  of  a  false  and 
disagreeable  nature  produces  a 
poison  in  the  blood  and  cell  tissues. 


4 


20 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR    YOU 


THE   UPBUILDING   PROCESS       21 


<  } 


M 


L 


These  poisons  affect  the  health 
and  the  germ-cells. 

Another  interesting  discovery 
made  by  psychologists  is  that 
everyone  throws  out  a  psychical 
and  physical  magnetism.  Every- 
body exhales  an  emanation  just  as 
a  flower  or  a  weed  does.  The  at- 
mosphere is  vital  with  our  emana- 
tions. The  stimulating  influences 
of  a  metropolis  are  accounted  for 
by  the  thought  emanations  in  the 
air.     Analysis  has  shown  that  : 

**  Different  people  give  out  differ- 
ent emanations  ;  and  that  the 
same  people  give  out  different 
emanations  at  different  times ; 
that  decisive  people  give  out  dis- 
tinct emanations  which  hint  that 


according  to  the  individuality  is 
the  force  of  the  emanation ;  that 
even  to  the  utensils  which  we  em- 
ploy, to  our  clothes,  to  our  rooms, 
we  give  out  our  emanations,  and 
that  every  thought  we  think  in 
any  place  influences  more  or  less 
the  atmosphere  of  that  place,  and, 
to  some  extent  influences  every 
one  who  comes  into  it,  according 
to  the  degree  of  sensitiveness  of 
the  person." 


I 


CHAPTER   III. 

AN    INSPIRITING    SYMBOL. 

A  A /HAT  has  all  this  to  do  with 
^  ^       success?     Everything. 
The  foregoing  all  too  brief  and 
inadequate     presentation     of    the 
experiments     and    discoveries    in 
mind-art  and  psychology — does  it 
not  suggest  what  masterly  power 
is  within  vou  ?     Does  it  not  sug- 
gest ihsivisuccess  is,  for  you,  if   you 
only  know  how  to  handle  yourself 
aright*^ 

Grant  that  your  thought  is  a 
force ;  that  this  force  influences 
more  or  less,  according  to^  the  way 
you  direct  it,  everybody  and  every- 


L 


AN   INSPIRITING   SYMBOL 


23 


thing  with  whom  and  with  which 
you  come  in  contact 

Recall  the  experiments  upon  the 
puppies ;  the  development  of  sense, 
conduct  and  moral-memories  in 
the  children  in  the  kindergartens, 
which  show  that  you  have  the 
power  to  change  the  conditions  of 
your  mind,  if  not  the  cells  of  your 
brain.  Recall  these  I  pray  you 
and  grant  that  you  can  change 
your  thought-force  for  better  or 
for  worse  as  your  Will  insists. 

Recall  how  certain  people  have 
affected  you  ;  how  some  had  an 
atmosphere  as  pleasant  as  a  sunny 
breeze  and  how  others  seemed 
ever  to  move  in  damp  clouds  ex- 
haling gloom.     Did  you  not  experi- 


t 


I* 


H 


SUCCESS   IS    FOR    YOU 


ence  distinct   sensations,  feelings, 
and  emotions,  pleasurable  with  the 
one  and  discomforting  and  depress- 
ing with  the  other  ?     Recall  these 
and  grant,  if  you   please,  that  psy- 
chical as  well  as  physical  emana- 
tions are  real  and  that  they  are 
not  as   unsubstantial   as    "boiled 
cobwebs,"  as  some  melancholy  ma- 
terialists would  have  you  believe. 
Apropos   of  cobwebs — the   spider 
is  a  glorious  example  for  you.     Is 
not  the  web  he  spins  an  inspiriting 
symbol   of  the  power  within  you 
that    creates   the   conditions   that 
surround  you  ?     With   equal  ease 
he  swings  a  gossamer  hammock  in 
a  corner  of  a  castle  or  a  barn  ;  or 
loops   his    filmy   threads    to  tree- 


ii 


AN   INSPIRITING   SYMBOL         25 


twigs  or  spreads  his  fragile  net  on 
spears  of  delicate  grass  that  serve 
as  pillars  for  his  home  near  the 
ground.  No  matter  where  he 
builds  it  is  the  same  sort  of  illu- 
sion— a  tangible  veil  of  mist. 
Does  this  not  hint  to  you  the 
meaning  of  the  following  signifi- 
cant words  ?  *'  The  covetousness, 
or  the  malignity  which  saddens  me 
when  I  ascribe  it  to  society,  is  my 
own.  /  am  always  environed  by 
myself r  And  those  elusive  gray 
strands  that  the  spider  projects, 
are  they  not  visible  emanations? 
He  decorates  or  disfigures  accord- 
ing to  where  he  builds.  Art  has 
never  been  able  to  reproduce  in 
gem  or  lace  the  exquisite  beauty 


I 


^11 


26 


SUCCESS  IS   FOR   YOU 


rtf  II 


m 


m , 


of  the  web  of  a  spider  woven  on 
grass-tips  and  studded  with  sun- 
lighted  dewdrops.  No  crystal  has 
ever  been  glorified  with  more 
beautiful,  prismatic  coloring  than 
that  which  idealizes  a  spiders 
home  hung  on  a  tree  or  between 
old  posts.  The  light  breaking  on 
the  perfect  angles  formed  by  the 
geometric  lines  of  delicate  gossa- 
mer, makes  the  fragile  thing  seem 
woven  of  the  intangible  radiations 
of  a  rainbow. 

But  what  a  bit  of  dirty  fluff  a 
spider's  web  is  in  a  clean  white 
hallway  or  pretty  living-room? 
Many  of  us  like  the  spider  choose 
the  wrong  corner  in  which  to  weave 
our  web  of  life.    A  spider  is  a  poem 


AN    INSPIRITING   SYMBOL         27 

— but  like  many  another  celebrity 
he   is  not  judged  by  the  highest 
and  best  expression  of  himself,  and 
his  vices  have  been   made  more 
prominent  than  his  virtues,  except 
one,  his  great  unfailing  industry, 
his  courage  to  stick  to  what  he  has 
once   begun   despite   repeated  at- 
tacks and   defeats.     A  poet  long 
ago  sang  in  verse  the  praises  of 
this  superb  quality  of  the  indefatig- 
able weaver.     But  not  to  digress 
—if  you  grant  that  your  thought 
is  a  force  and  that  you  can  direct 
this  force,  and  that  you  create  an 
atmosphere  round  about  you  that 
either  attracts  or  repels,  what  is  the 
first  thing  you  must  do  if  you  wish 
to  succeed  in  any  enterprise  ? 


'I 


111 


CHAPTER  IV. 


TO    MAKE    YOURSELF    A    VALUE. 


I   t 


ill/ 


t 


YOU  will  first,  as  suggested  in 
TVAa^  Dress  Makes  of  Us, 
endeavor  to  find  out  if  your  ap- 
pearance is  for  or  against  your 
inner  self.  You  will  observe 
whether  your  clothes  are  caricatur- 
ing the  lines  of  your  body  and  the 
features  of  your  face  ;  or  advertis- 
ing to  the  world  that  you  are  a 
vain,  erratic  creature,  or  a  slovenly 
disheartened  one.  You  will  note 
whether  your  body  is  truthfully 
revealing  your  real  self,  your  spirit 
When  you    remember   that  every 

thought  is  a  chisel  literally  carving 

28 


TO   MAKE    YOURSELF   A   VALUE      29 

its  expression   upon  the  face  and 
form  you  will  strive  to  give  your 
thoughts    as    attractive    an    out- 
ward showing  as  you  possibly  can, 
will  you  not  ?      Men  judge  of  a 
person's  character  by  his  form  and 
walk  and  by  the  general  movements 
of  his  body.     The  new  psychology 
teaches  us  we  can  make  ourselves 
over  by  using  and  developing  the 
right   kind   of    thought-force.     In 
harmony    with     Professor    Gates 
another      psychologist      afifirms  : 
•*  Every  thought  which  enters  the 
mind  is  registered  in  the  brain  by 
a  change  more  or  less  permanent 
Bad  thoughts  build  up  structures 
of  cells  which  engender  evil  ideas, 
and    good   thoughts   contrariwise. 


{ 


■\ 


30 


SUCCESS    IS    FOR    YOU 


\i 


Consider  the  case  of  the  man  who 
is  unhappy  and  depressed,  who 
has  lost  ambition  and  walks  the 
streets  with  slouching  gait  The 
psycho-physicist  can  take  such  a 
person  and  within  six  weeks  trans- 
form him  to  such  an  extent  that 
every  friend  of  his  will  notice  the 
difference."  By  this  process  of 
moral  upbuilding  what  might  not 
be  done  among  the  criminal  classes  ? 
Regarding  this  process  of  mak- 
ing one's  self  over,  Henry  Wood, 
an  eminent  psychologist,  says : 
**  Every  one  has  long  been  aware 
that  fear,  grief,  sin,  anxiety,  pessi- 
mism, and  all  their  train  pull  down 
bodily  tissue,  but  we  have  unwit- 
tingly failed  to  observe  that  their 


TO   MAKE    YOURSELF    A    VALUE      3 1 

positive  opposites  would  surely 
build  it  up.  But  this  is  logical  and 
reasonable.  Harmony,  joy,  opti- 
mism, idealism,  love,  and  courage 
will  surely  invigorate.  Under  the 
now  well-understood  law  of  auto- 
suggestion and  thought-concentra- 
tion, each  mental  condition  can  be 
positively  cultivated  and  made 
dominant  in  the  consciousness." 

You  have  practised  auto-sugges- 
tion unawares  all  your  life.  When 
you  said,  for  instance,  upon  going 
to  bed,  "I  must  get  up  at  six 
o'clock  to-morrow  morning,"  and 
so  charged  your  mind  with  the 
thought  that  you  must  wake  up 
that  you  did,  you  practised  auto- 
suggestion in  a  familiar  way.     If 


'     ■  I, ' 


32 


SUCCESS  IS   FOR   YOU 


you  say  to  yourself  upon   falling 
asleep,   '*  I   will   rise  with  energy, 
sunny  hope,  courage  and  smiles  to- 
morrow morning,"  and   persist  in 
saying  it,  you  will  nerve  yourself  to 
carry   out   the  words  you  declare, 
and  you  will  find   yourself  stimu- 
lated with  new  power.     You  will 
establish   sense-memortes  that  will 
WILL  you  to  be  energetic,  radiant, 
cheerful,  and  full  of  bouyant  ener- 
gy, and  you  will  attract  successful 
conditions.     Did  you  ever  know  a 
gracious,  sunny  soul  who  was  not 
sought    for  and   gladly  welcomed 
everywhere  ?    A  heart  that  radiates 
courage  and  belief  in  its  own  powers 
of  accomplishment  draws    oppor- 
tunities and   attracts   "people    of 


kN^\ 


TO   MAKE   YOURSELF   A   VALUE      33 

value."      To    know    **  people    of 
value  "  is  a  phase  of  wealth. 

The  time-worn  phrase  "to  be 
rich  in  friends  "  is  not  a  sentimental 
expression,  it  is  of  real  market 
worth  to  one  who  can  say  it  truth- 
fully. To  the  man  or  woman 
"  rich  in  friends  "  doors  are  opened 
and  opportunities  presented  that 
often  are  not  within  reach  of  those 
merely  rich  in  money,  and  are 
never  heard  of  by  the  woe-begone 
who  live  in  the  depths. 

The  term  "people  of  value" 
signifies  not  only  those  of  prestige 
and  worldly  position  but  men  and 
women  of  such  character  and  trust- 
worthiness that  their  word  or  re- 
commendation commands  recogni- 

9 


ii 


34 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


tion  and  respect  If  your  thought 
is  all  pure,  bright,  confident  and 
courageous,  your  personality  will 
be  agreeable,  uplifting,  and  you  will 
be  a  value,  an  increasing  value, 
wherever  you  go,  and  people,  glad 
that  you  are  alive,  will  want  you, 
will  seek  you. 

Believe  me,  if  you  are  receptive 
to  impressions  and  have  no  false 
standards  of  pride  that  create 
around  you  a  repellent  atmosphere 
and  are  cheerfully  alert  and  brave 
to  seize  opportunities  it  will  seem 
as  if  paths  of  pleasantness  and 
success  appear  as  if  by  magic  for 
your  willing  feet  to  tread  If  you 
are  inclined  to  think  this  assertion 
is  but  moonshine,  the  blithe  vagary 


TO    MAKE    YOURSELF   A   VALUE      35 

of  an  optimist,  honestly  study  the 
temperament,  ways,  and  disposition 
of  those  who  succeed  in  life,  and 
prove  the  truth  of  it  for  yourself. 


i 


\ 


Jf^<-.  AmJil. 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE  BOY  WHO  WENT  TO  BOMBAY. 

ILLUSTRATIVE  of  this  fact, 
note  the  underlying  forces  that 
won  success  for  the  boy  who  is  the 
hero  of  the  following  tale.  It 
reads  like  a  romance,  yet  it  is  true : 
A  young  man,  an  orphan,  worked 
in  a  New  York  detective  bureau. 
From  his  occupation  you  judge 
aright  that  he  had  knowledge  of 
men,  and,  better  than  that,  he  had 
self-knowledge.  Self-knowledge  fa- 
thers self-poise,  an  admirable  trait 
he  possessed  in  a  commendable  de- 
gree.    He  was    a  physically   and 

mentally  wholesome  chap.    He  was 

36 


THE  BOY  WHO  WENT  TO  BOMBAY      37 


attractively  cheerful.  That  his 
personality  was  lovable  one  might 
infer  from  the  devotion  of  a  pretty 
little  East-side  girl  for  whom  his 
chivalrous  and  tender  regard  were 
sweet  to  see. 

He  had  little  money,  sometimes 
none.  Among  the  few  things  his 
father  left  him  was  a  recipe  for 
cleaning  boilers.  He  occasionally 
earned  a  hundred  dollars  by  mak- 
ing some  of  the  preparation  to  the 
order  of  a  firm  in  Bombay  for  whom 
his  father  from  time  to  time  had 
done  the  same.  Perhaps  it  was 
the  recipe  that  gave  him  the  im- 
pression that  it  would  be  a  good 
plan  to  go  to  India. 

All  he  had  was  $7.50  to  start  on 


38 


SUCCESS   IS    FOR   YOU 


THE  BOY  WHO  WENT  TO  BOMBAY     39 


U   iM' 


Mi 


the  journey.  Anything  is  possible, 
however,  to  a  man  who  knows  his 
end  and  moves  straight  for  it,  and  for 
it  alone.  He  was  determined  to  get 
to  London,  and  he  did.  He  worked 
his  passage  by  assisting  in  the  en- 
gineers' department  of  a  steam- 
ship. His  $7.50  was  intact  when 
he  arrived  in  London.  He  soon 
spent  it  for  the  necessities  of  life. 
One  day  he  sat  penniless  but 
hopeful  in  a  park  in  the  great, 
strange  city.  Instead  of  present- 
ing the  gloomy,  unattractive  ap- 
pearance of  a  dejected  being  with 
drooping  shoulders,  grimly  shut, 
unsmiling  mouth,  lowering  eyes, 
and  helpless  hands  shoved  discon- 
solately   in    sagging    pockets,    he 


gave  the  impression  of  being  a 
well-to-do  manly  young  fellow 
resting  from  a  pleasant  walk.  He 
was  kempt  with  care,  as  usual.  His 
clothes  were  a  bit  worn  but  scrupu- 
lously neat  He  whistled  softly 
a  jocund  air  as  his  lithe,  energetic 
hands  whittled  a  stick.  As  he 
whistled  and  whittled  he  wondered 
what  he  would  do  next.  He 
attracted  the  attention  of  an  old 
gentleman  who  sat  beside  him. 
The  old  man  addressed  a  common- 
place remark  to  him  which  the  boy 
answered  looking  the  older  man 
straight  in  the  eye,  as  was  his  wont, 
with  a  direct,  searching,  but  not 
inhospitable  look. 

The  boy  in  receptive  mood  re- 


)! 


-• 


40 


SUCCESS  IS   FOR   YOU 


li  1>> 


tj 


sponded  to  the  old  gentleman's 
observations  in  a  spirit  of  easy, 
pleasant  comradeship.  Finally  the 
older  man  confided  to  the  younger 
that  he  wished  much  to  sell  his 
library  which,  although  small,  con- 
tained a  number  of  valuable  books. 
He  asked  the  boy  if  he  thought  he 
could  sell  it  for  him.  With  char- 
acteristic alacrity  of  spirit  the  New 
York  chap,  not  at  all  phased,  said 
he  would  try  to  do  it.  The  old 
man  gave  him  some  directions. 
The  boy  succeeded  in  selling  the 
books.  He  received  a  commission 
of  five  pounds  for  doing  it. 

He  lost  no  time  in  finding  out 
what  were  his  possibilities  for  get- 
ting to  India.     He  seized  the  op- 


THE  BOY  WHO  WENT  TO  BOMBAY     4 1 

portunity  to  go  as  an  assistant  of 
a    cook  on   a  steamer  bound  for 
Bombay.     Among  other  things  his 
ready  hands  could  do  was  to  play  a 
banjo    with    pleasing    skill.       He 
banished  care  and  homesickness  in 
his   leisure  hours    by  picking  out 
many  a   merry   tune.     His   music 
won  for  him  the  friendly  interest 
of  a  first-cabin  passenger,  at  whose 
request  the  boy  went  on  the  upper 
deck  to  play.  The  captain,  enraged 
at  his  audacity,  ordered  him  below 
with   brutal    despatch.     The  boy 
was  *•  rich  in  friends,"  the  passen- 
gers pleaded  that  he  should  remain 
to  play   not   only   that  night  but 
other    nights.       The     favor    was 
grudgingly  granted. 


'I 


^^1 


■1         I 


\\  1   ! 


ii .  J 


42 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


When  the  boy  hired  to  assist  the 
cook  he  had  signed  papers  to  re- 
turn with  the  steamer.  He  did 
not  wish  to  do  it  but,  like  the 
cheerful  philospher  that  he  was, 
he  did  not  spoil  the  comfortable 
present  by  worrying  about  the 
future. 

Verily,  "Fortune  favors  the 
brave."  The  captain,  displeased 
with  the  boy's  apparent  lack  of 
appreciation  of  class-distinctions, 
and  resenting  the  attentions  be- 
stowed upon  him  by  grateful  pas- 
sengers who  had  enjoyed  his  music, 
discharged  him  at  Bombay.  Of 
course,  this  unexpected  dismissal 
made  the  boy  more  than  glad. 

He  hunted  out  the  firm  that  had 


THE  BOY  WHO  WENT  TO  BOMBAY   43 

sent  for  the  preparation  for  clean- 
ing boilers.  They  wished  to  buy 
his  recipe.  He  had  the  commer- 
cial knowledge  and  wit  to  know 
enough  not  to  take  their  price. 
He  used  the  recipe  for  his  own 
profit.     He  prospered. 

One  day  he  came  back  to  New 
York,  very  comfortably  off,  and 
more  manly  than  ever  in  his  bright, 
unassuming,  self-poised  way.  He 
married  his  East-side  sweetheart 
and  made  a  tour  of  the  United 
States  before  going  to  his  home  in 
Bombay. 

Were  not  cheerfulness  and  cour- 
age, as  well  as  willingness  to  work, 
among  the  fine  qualities  that  at- 
tracted success  to  this  boy  ? 


1^ 


III 


44 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


You  may  rightly  remark,  "The 
Fates  were  kind  to  him.  He  had 
that  most  precious  of  natal  gifts — 
a  happy  temperament.  It  was  easy 
for  him  to  get  along."  To  be  sure 
the  man  or  woman  who  is  born 
with  a  brave,  cheerful,  and  ener- 
getic temperament  has  the  start 
in  life  of  the  one  in  whom  mel- 
ancholy, negation,  and  timidity 
predominate ;  but  thanks  to  the 
beneficent  forces  within  us  all  a 
man  or  woman  can  conquer  tem- 
peramental weaknesses. 


If         J  t 


i'iS 


I^Pf^ 


CHAPTER  VI. 

TWO   WHO   CONQUERED. 

A     GIRL,  with  a   tendency   to 
^^     grumble  at  everything,  made 
life  a  burden  to  her  roommate  at 
a  fashionable  boarding-school.  The 
roommate    turned   upon   her  one 
day  and  said,  ''  I  wouldn't  be  you 
for  all   the   money  in   the   world, 
even  if  you  are  the  first  in  all  your 
classes.     You  always  see  the  worst 
side  of  things.      Nothing  pleases 
you.      Do   you  know  I  Ve  been 
keeping  an  account  of  the  things 
you  Ve  grumbled  at  this  morning  ? 
It  is  only  eleven  o'clock  and  you 
have  scolded  about  twenty  things. 

m 


ii 


46 


SUCCESS    IS    FOR    YOU 


If  you  don't  stop  finding  fault  I  11 
ask  Mrs.  Parsons  to  let  Sally  Ridge 
room  with  me.  She  's  untidy,  but 
she  always  has  a  good  word  for 
everybody  and  is  not  carping  at 
everything."  The  girl  who  was 
arraigned  had  a  sensitive,  critical, 
and  imaginative  temperament.  She 
was  high-strung  and  idealistic  and 
scarcely  anything  satisfied  her  lofty 
standards.  She  was  wounded  at 
many  things  one  of  less  keen  sensi- 
bility would  not  notice.  Her  sen- 
sitiveness, not  being  controlled, 
developed  into  mere  touchiness,  a 
disagreeable  phase  of  vanity.  She 
had  never  been  taught  to  weigh  all 
sides  to  get  just  values.  Her  school- 
mate's denunciation,  delivered  with 


( 


TWO    WHO   CONQUERED  47 

the  uncompromising  manner  of  a 
candid  giri,  hurt  her  pride.     She 
had   not   been    conscious    of    her 
fault-findings,  and  honestly  believed 
herself  incapable  of  making  herself 
so  disagreeable,    and   would  have 
believed  herself  sincere  when  she 
asserted  "  I  judge  people  by  their 
excellences  not  by  their  defects." 
But  the  list  of  her  criticisms  of  her 
schoolmates,     teachers,    and     the 
servant,    her    grumblings    at    her 
clothes,  bed,  in  fact  everything,  so 
glibly  read  off  by  her   observing 
companion  convinced  her  that  she 
was   indisputably  guilty.     She  re- 
solved to  check  her  inclination  to 
find  fault.     It  was  difficult  at  first. 
The  tendency  to   measure   every- 


ill 


kI 


H' 


48 


SUCCESS   IS    FOR    YOU 


body  and  everything  by  her  own 
standards  was  strong  within  her. 
She  kept  account  of  her  criticisms 
of  both  people  and  things,  and  of 
the  number  of  times  she  controlled 
her  impulse  to  denounce.  She 
tried  to  see  her  schoolmates  as 
they  really  were,  not  as  she  thought 
they  ought  to  be.  She  persisted 
until  she  conquered  the  desire  to 
find  fault  at  all.  She  in  the  mean- 
time had  developed  a  power  of 
keen  discrimination  and  a  justness 
of  judgment  that  were  remarkable 
and  that  came  to  be  relied  upon 
by  older  people.  Her  word  in 
after  life  became  one  of  authority. 
Her  condemnation  or  praise  of 
anybody   was   accepted   in   many 


•i 


TWO   WHO   CONQUERED  49 

cases  as  final.  It  was  said  of  her, 
"You  know  if  Mary  says  it,  it  is 
so,  for  she  never  judges  hastily, 
and  sees  you  from  every  point  of 
view  she  can." 

Yet  another  equally  simple  illus- 
tration of  the  mastering  of  a  tem- 
peramental weakness,  that  proves 
that  anyone  can  govern  her  tem- 
perament.  A  talented  young  wom- 
an so  craved  novelty  and  variety 
that  she  lacked  in  a  conspicuous 
degree  the  power  of  application. 
She  was  always  beginning  some- 
thing  and    never   was  known   to 
completely   finish    any   work    she 
ever  tried  to  do.    She  was  brilliant 
in  a  birdlike  way— the   way  of  a 
flitting,    fluttering    humming-bird, 


ii 


'III 


I 


i 


1 1^ 


I 

ll 

If 


50 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


that  flies  rapidly  from  one  flower 
to  another,  but  does  not  stay  long 
at  any.  She  had  many  good 
thoughts,  yet  they  were  scattered. 
She  could  talk  on  a  great  variety 
of  subjects  in  a  short  time,  but 
failed  sadly  in  consecutiveness  of 
feeling,  thought,  and  action.  A 
huge  trunk  full  of  expensive  ma- 
terials for  fancy  work  was  a  revela- 
tion of  the  condition  of  her  mind. 
In  the  trunk  were  fine  linen  pillow 
shams,  one  richly  braided,  the  other 
scarcely  begun,  both  mussed  and 
age-worn  ;  there  were  all  sorts  and 
patterns  of  embroidery,  the  latest 
of  the  hour,  tossed  on  old-fashioned 
specimens.  None  were  completed. 
In     some     a     flower    exquisitely 


.*■ 


TWO   WHO   CONQUERED  51 

wrought    in     silk     and     perfectly 
matched  in  colors  showed  the  skill 
of  the  worker.    There  were  endless 
beginnings  of  lace  work  for  collars, 
cuffs,  and  trimmings,  all  soiled  and 
thrown    aside,    some    in    knotted 
little  bundles  ;  there  were  half-fin- 
ished slippers,  sacks,  and  smoking- 
caps  that  the  restless,  active  fingers 
had  eageriy  worked  at  in  the  fresh, 
stimulating  enthusiasm   of  a  first 
attack.      In    her  mental   methods 
was  the  same  want  of  steadiness 
and  persistency.     She  jumped  rap- 
idly from   premise   to  conclusion, 
and  failed  to  connect  and  carry  out 
her  ideas,  really  fine  and  worthy  as 
the  majority  of  them  were.     One 
day  a  profound  student  and  keen 


1 1 


f 


I 


0 


I 


fit 


52 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


observer  of  human  nature  said  to 
her,  "  Do  you  know  that  your  lack 
of  thoroughness  is  your  greatest 
fault  ?  It  will  be  at  the  bottom  of 
all  your  failures  in  life.  If  you  do 
not  conquer  it,  you  will  never  be 
a  success  in  anything."  The  girl 
was  proud.  She  wished  to  be  a 
noted  success  in  one  special  calling 
and  an  all-around  success  in  what- 
ever she  did.  She  blushed  and 
quivered  at  the  philosopher's  re- 
mark. His  words  stung  her  like 
a  lash.  His  words  had  weight 
however.  Poor  child,  she  started 
in  to  conquer  this  lack  of  conti- 
nuity, not  knowing  what  a  weari- 
some battle  it  would  be.  She 
practised  in  every  way.    When  she 


f 


TWO   WHO  CONQUERED  53 

knelt  down  to  say  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  she  was  amused,  first,  and 
then  horrified  to  note  upon  how 
many  things  her  mind  wandered 
while  she  was  repeating  the  familiar 
lines.  She  made  effort  after  effort 
to  concentrate  her  thoughts  upon 
the  meaning  of  the  words ;  at  last 
she  gained  the  restful  upliftment 
that  any  prayer  or  poem,  said  with 
absolute  attention  to  the  meaning 
of  the  lines,  gives  the  one  who 
utters  it.  The  world  is  shut  out 
with  all  its  harassing  turmoil  and 
hurry  by  this  power  of  concen- 
tration. She  dwelt  upon  and  pored 
over  work  that  became  so  disagree- 
able to  her  that  she  would  shed 
tears  doing   it.     She  took  music 


I'i 


il 


H 


{If 


54 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


lessons  and  learned  her  notes  by 
heart.  Not  having  a  perfect  ear 
this  took  intense  application.  She 
studied  French  verbs.  She  made 
herself  finish  whatever  she  began. 
To-day  she  is  a  great  artist.  She 
dates  her  success  from  the  hour 
the  philosopher  told  her  of  her 
greatest  fault.  She  is  not  only  a 
mistress  of  details  in  her  profession 
but  a  thorough  housekeeper.  She 
did  not  conquer  by  magic  but  by 
many  months  of  persistent  effort. 
The  effort,  however,  soon  ceased 
to  become  irksome  for  she  resolved 
to  conquer  with  smiles  instead  of 
tears.  She  had  learned  the  value 
of  cheerfulness. 


i^  \ 


CHAPTER    VII. 


SUCCESS       IN      CHEERFULNESS      AND 
CONCENTRATION. 

EVERYTHING  proves  to  us 
that  cheerfulness  upbuilds, 
uplifts,  attracts.  Be  cheerful. 
Grumbling,  whining,  complain- 
ing are  just  so  much  capital  taken 
from  your  bank  account  of  mental 
force  and  put  to  a  very  poor  use, 
indeed,  to  no  use  at  all.  If  you 
drew  your  money  out  of  your 
bank  every  day  and  tossed  it  into 
the  sea  people  would  deem  you 
insane.  You  would  soon  become 
poor  and  neglected.  You  waste 
your  precious  God-given  force  just 

55 


t    I 


I 


III 


56 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


as  foolishly,  and  lose  your  power 
of  attracting  by  fretting  over  tri- 
fles,— a  letter  expected,  a  bit  of 
dirt  on  the  floor,  imaginary  insults 
and  a  hundred  other  silly,  false 
ideas.  Your  vital  energy,  your 
very  life  is  thus  uselessly  dissi- 
pated and  soon  you  repel,  and 
people  study  how  to  avoid  you 
and  you  lose  opportunities  of  suc- 
cess. 

If  you  are  inclined  to  be  miser- 
able and  have  a  tendency  to  mel- 
ancholy and  despondency  practise 
auto-suggestion  vigorously  and  in- 
sistently and  change  your  sense- 
memories.  Determine  to  be  cheer- 
ful Project  a  vision,  a  picture  of 
yourself  as  cheerful,  lovable,  cour- 


%\ 


M 


CHEERFULNESS 


57 


ageous,  hopeful,  and  make  yourself 
like  it.  Concentrate  vour  thought 
upon  cheerfulness.  ^Concentration 
is  one  of  the  chief  forces  of  success 
in  anything  You  even  comb 
your  hair  Setter  if  you  concentrate 
your  thought  upon  doing  it.  Your 
good-morning  is  more  magnetic, 
more  helpful  to  both  yourself  and 
your  hearer,  if  you  concentrate 
your  thought  upon  the  person  as 
you  utter  it.  You  project  a  shaft 
of  concentrated  spiritual  light  that 
warms  and  brightens. 

A  man's  thoughts  may  all  be 
good  and  correct  and  commend- 
able, yet  if  his  mind  flits  quickly 
from  one  thing  to  another  they 
become  mixed,  weak,  and  lose  in 


Hi 


i 


^f 


58 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


power  of  attracting,  of  magnetiz- 
ing. They  will  accomplish  com- 
paratively nothing  in  building  up 
business  or  character.  A  thought 
to  be  effective  must  be  clearly 
defined  and  steadily  held.  It  may 
be  made  to  fly  like  the  shot  of  a 
skilled  gunner  whose  aim  is  sure 
and  swift ;  or  it  may  be  projected 
with  the  diffusive  brightness  of  a 
sky-rocket  which  challenges  admir- 
ation for  an  instant  and  then  dis- 
appears into  nothingness. 

I  trust  you  see  how  imperatively 
necessary  it  is  that  your  thoughts 
should  be  classified,  should  be 
clear,  should  be  definite,  and  that 
you  should  have  concentration.  A 
western    judge,    to   whom  young 


niJlliidtgi '"III"'!" 


mamsBfaamafamaL^^ 


CHEERFULNESS 


59 


people    often     went    for    advice, 
offered  none  to  his  son  who  was 
coming  East  to  start  upon  a  musi- 
cal career.     The  young  man  half- 
fancied  his  father  was  not  interested 
in  his  success.     When  the  judge 
bade   his  boy  good-bye  he   said, 
**  Stick  to  it.  my  son.     Remember 
those  three  little  words,"  he  con- 
tinued,   emphasizing   them  afresh 
by   telling  each   one   off   on    his 
fingers,  '*Shc^  to  it!  I  say."     His 
son  never  forgot  the  admonition. 
It  nerved  him  to  keep  on  although 
discouragements    came  thick   and 
fast,    and   the    struggle    in    New 
York,  where  competition   was  in- 
tense, was  terrible  for  a  time.     He 
finally    attained    success    and   an 


<  >.i 


\ 


p 


•IP 


I! 


60 


SUCCESS  IS   FOR  YOU 


international  reputation  in  musical 
circles. 

Clean,  clearly  defined,  concen- 
trated thought-force  has  a  quality 
of  electricity.  It  is  powerful  to 
attract,  and  properly  directed  it 
burns  away  what  is  useless  and 
offensive. 


I  •    ! 


CHAPTER     VIII. 

THE    GAIN     FROM     STUDYING     YOUR 
FELLOW-MEN. 

\  A /HEN  you  thoroughly  under- 
^  ^  stand  yourself  you  will 
the  better  understand  your  fellow- 
beings.  But  study  your  fellow- 
men,  so  you  will  not  be  deceived. 
If  you  are  deceived  it  is  your  own 
fault,  and  you  have  no  right  to  rail 
against  those  who  have  deceived 
you,  as  if  they  alone  were  the  chief 
sinners.  You  should  learn  to  know 
the  trading  eye  that  weighs  your 
purse  ;  the  worldly  eye  that  weighs 
your  position ;  the  beastly  eye  that 
weighs  your  form,  and  the  heart's 

eye  that  weighs  your  soul. 

61 


I 


yi 


62 


^ 


1,1' 


I 


I 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR    YOU 


Educate  your  ear  to  discern  and 
to  differentiate  the  distinctive 
quality  in  the  voices  of  all  you 
meet.  The  over-tones  in  the 
voices  of  the  false  signalize  to  you 
to  be  careful  and  cautious  in  your 
dealings  with  them. 

Treachery  is  revealed  in  the 
sideling,  catlike  walk,  the  covert 
gesture  and  the  obsequious  bear- 
ing of  a  man  or  woman,  even 
the  plastic  clothes  publish  charac- 
teristics of  their  wearers.  You 
have  eyes  with  which  to  see  and 
study,  you  have  intuitions  with 
which  to  feel,  to  •* sense"  condi- 
tions, and  the  emanations  of  those 
you  meet.  It  is  not  only  your 
fascinating  and  glorious  privilege 


STUDYING    YOUR    FELLOW-MEN      63 

to  be  able  to  do  this,  but  it  is  your 
duty.  It  has  a  commercial  value. 
The  man  who  can  read  aright  his 
fellow-men,  be  he  hotel  clerk  or 
bank  president,  is  worth  a  deal 
more  money  in  every  position  he 
fills  than  the  man  who  cannot. 

Remember  your  power  to  feel 
the  quality  of  the  natures  of  those 
with  whom  you  come  in  contact 
is  always  proportionate  to  your 
freedom  from  evil  thought.  The 
thought-wave  from  those  you  meet 
will  cause  distinct  vibrations  within 
you,  either  harmonious  or  dis- 
cordant, according  to  the  nature 
of  the  persons  you  meet.  If  your 
own  thought  is  purposeful,  spirit- 
ual  and   pure   in   quality,  it  goes 


itf 


64 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


forth  like  ArieFs  spear  and  instantly 
detects  the  false  from  the  true 
through  all  disguises,  through  all 
atmospheres.  Let  no  self-right- 
eous idea  of  your  own  superior 
virtue,  however,  lead  you  to  con- 
demn those  you  do  not  understand. 
Conceit  will  deaden  your  sensibil- 
ities more  quickly  than  chloroform 
does  your  senses.  Look  to  it  that 
your  touch  is  not  discordant  and 
that  you  have  given  your  neighbor 
the  benefit  of  a  good  light.  Be 
as  generous  to  him  as  you  would 
be  to  a  picture.  He  is  a  series  of 
pictures,  vitally  interesting.  There 
is  no  arrogance  so  foolish  and 
despicable  as  the  arrogance  of 
piety.     Do  not  mistake  the  form 


STUDYING    YOUR    FELLOW-MEN      6$ 

for     the    spirit.     Many    religious 
people  who  assume  that  they  are 
following  the  precepts  of  God,  and 
condemn     their     fellow-men,     are 
merely  expressing  their  own  nar- 
row opinions  of    God,    their   own 
caricature   of    Him.      Such   piety 
does  not  save  them  from  disease, 
accident,    misfortune    and    death. 
They   frequently   fall    where    the 
so-called   bad   and   lawless    safely 
run.     But   be  it   understood   that 
no  one  is  brought  into  the  atmos- 
phere of  a  truly  spiritual  person 
without    reaping    lasting    benefit 
Many  pious  persons  are  not  at  all 
spiritual,  that  is  one  reason  they 
make  religion  repellent  instead  of 
attractive. 


i 


>i 


.i^ 


CHAPTER    IX. 

TO   ATTRACT   SUCCESS. 

WHEN  you  understand  your- 
self and  your  fellow-men 
you  should  then  study  to  know  how 
to  use  the  power  within  you  so  you 
will  not  waste  volumes  of  energy 
through  ignorance.  So  you  will 
not  dissipate  your  vitality  through 
anger,  through  worry,  through  at- 
tending to  other  persons*  affairs, 
unless  it  is  your  business  to  do  it. 
Many  a  woman  makes  herself  look 
like  a  withered  orange  by  wasting 
her  energy  and  vital  strength  in 
futile  efforts  to  accomplish  vain  re- 
forms.    The  first  impulse  of  an  in- 

66 


TO   ATTRACT   SUCCESS  67 

telligent  engineer  would  be  to  put 
the  governor  on  to  an  engine  in 
which  the  steam  was  evaporating 
near  the  danger  point  and  to  no 
purpose.     How  many  human  en- 
gines dissipate  their  will-force,  their 
energy,  through  unchecked  anger, 
continual  fretting,  and   misguided 
philanthropies   until   they  become 
unattractive,      broken-down     ma- 
chines?    Above    all   things  mind 
your  own  business,  but  be  keenly 
alive.     When  you  are  negative  and 
indifferent  you  are  really  half-dead. 
There  are  unused  muscles  in  your 
body  withering  away  for  want  of 
exercise,  there  are  unused  cells  in 
your  brain  contracting  for  want  of 
nourishing  thoughts. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

TO  ATTRACT   SUCCESS. 

WHEN  you  understand  your- 
self and  your  fellow-men 
you  should  then  study  to  know  how 
to  use  the  power  within  you  so  you 
will  not  waste  volumes  of  energy 
through  ignorance.  So  you  will 
not  dissipate  your  vitality  through 
anger,  through  worry,  through  at- 
tending to  other  persons*  affairs, 
unless  it  is  your  business  to  do  it. 
Many  a  woman  makes  herself  look 
like  a  withered  orange  by  wasting 
her  energy  and  vital  strength  in 
futile  efforts  to  accomplish  vain  re- 
forms.    The  first  impulse  of  an  in- 

66 


TO   ATTRACT   SUCCESS 


67 


telligent  engineer  would  be  to  put 
the  governor  on  to  an  engine  in 
which  the  steam  was  evaporating 
near  the  danger  point  and  to  no 
purpose.     How  many  human  en- 
gines dissipate  their  will-force,  their 
energy,  through  unchecked  anger, 
continual  fretting,  and   misguided 
philanthropies   until   they  become 
unattractive,      broken-down     ma- 
chines?    Above    all   things  mind 
your  own  business,  but  be  keenly 
alive.     When  you  are  negative  and 
indifferent  you  are  really  half-dead. 
There  are  unused  muscles  in  your 
body  withering  away  for  want  of 
exercise,  there  are  unused  cells  in 
your  brain  contracting  for  want  of 
nourishing  thoughts. 


il 


68 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


Get  physical  poise  and  keep  it 
by  proper  exercise,  as  suggested  in 
The  Way  to  Keep  Young.  Try  to 
become  nobly  self-centred  and  har- 
monious, so  nothing  will  disturb 
you.  When  you  are  in  a  discord- 
ant mental  state  you  are  depleting 
your  energy.  You  are  sinfully 
wasting  it.  It  is  worse  than  if  you 
threw  gold  into  the  street.  Get 
your  mental  poise  as  you  do  your 
physical.  When  the  body  is  tense 
and  strained  let  go  of  it  for  a  time. 
Let  it  become  limp.  When  the 
mind  is  disturbed  and  unhappy, 
Entertain  no  thought.  Mark  the 
meaning  of  the  word  entertain. 
Thoughts  discordant  and  harass- 
ing will  come  like  phantoms.    They 


TO   ATTRACT   SUCCESS 


69 


will  breed  new  ones,  as  they  flock 
into  your  brain,  that  will  be  more 
disturbing  than  the  first-comers. 
Entertain  none.  Make  your  mind 
as  blank  as  possible  until  you  are 
calm  and  poised,  and  then  invite 
cheerful  and  hopeful  thoughts  and 
entertain  them  with  royal  hospital- 
ity. If  you  grant  the  truth  of  the 
discovery  that  each  of  us  radiates 
psychical  emanations,  as  palpable 
as  the  glow  of  heat  from  a  regis- 
ter, then  you  will  understand  the 
full  significance  of  the  command, 
"  Guard  well  thy  thoughts,"  for 
every  person  gives  out  a  psychical 
emanation  which  is  the  direct  re- 
sult of  his  mental,  and  conse- 
quently of  his  physical,  condition. 


!•■ 


ly 


70 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


If    your  thoughts  are  gloomy 
your  emanations  will  be  depressing, 
and  you  will   attract   despondent 
people  only  and  put  yourself  into 
an  ever-growing  current  of  gloom. 
If  you  are  bravely  cheerful  you  will 
draw  unto  yourself  bright  condi- 
tions and  will  attract  cheerful  com- 
rades, for  by  the  law  of  affinity  in 
nature  such  atoms  as  belong  in  the 
same  circle  are  mutually  attracted 
while  those  which  belong  in  other 
circles  repel.     We  all  know  from 
experience  how  depressing  the  at- 
mosphere is,  where  gloomy,  cross, 
and  unreposeful  people  live.  Their 
rooms  are  permeated  with  oppress- 
sive  discontent.     If  you  are  sensi- 
tive you  will  feel  the  atmosphere 


TO   ATTRACT   SUCCESS 


7x 


as  keenly  as  if  it  were  a  fog.  It 
is  moral  fog.  Despondent  people 
live  in  a  blur  and  could  not  see  an 
opportunity  for  success  if  they 
stumbled  over  it.  It  is  as  Mrs- 
Browning  pictures  it  in  the  follow- 
ing : 

"  Methinks  we  do  as  fretful  children  do, 
Leaning  their  faces  on  the  window-pane, 
To    sigh    the   glass  dim  with  their  own 

breath's  stain, 
And  shut  the  sky  and  landscape  from  their 

view; 
And  thus,  alas !     .     .     .     . 
We  miss  the  prospect  which  we  are  called 

unto."     .    .     . 

Look  at  yourself  !  If  the  corners 
of  your  mouth  sag,  Smile  !  Smile  ! 
Smile !  Smile  and  keep  on  smil- 
ing until  you  have  changed  your 


^ 


1 


»i-       ♦     f 


\l 


^2 


SUCCESS  IS   FOR    YOU 


expression.  Do  not  allow  disa- 
greeable, dissatisfied  thoughts  to 
furrow  gutters  of  despair  on  either 
side  of  your  mouth.  Face  the 
world  with  your  heart  forward  and 
your  backbone  straight,  and  if  there 
is  a  grumbling,  groaning,  discon- 
tented tone  or  vibration  in  your 
voice,  get  it  out  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble. You  must  know  "  The  eye 
must  be  sunny  ere  it  can  see  the 
sun,"  before  you  can  attract  you 
must  first  make  yourself  attractive. 
A  woman  who  has  chiselled  her 
face  with  melancholy  and  worrying 
thoughts,  said  pitifully  :  **  Surely 
I  am  not  so  unattractive  that  I 
could  not  gather  a  pleasant  circle 
of  friends  around  me  if  I  sent  cards 


TO   ATTRACT   SUCCESS 


73 


out  and  kept  up  one  evening  or 
day  at  home  through  the  season." 
She  added,  wistfully,  "I  am  so 
lonely.  I  only  know  two  families 
in  New  York."  Her  profession 
brought  her  within  touch  of  hun- 
dreds, yet  she  was  so  gloomy,  so 
full  of  her  own  trials,  difificulties, 
and  tribulations  that  she  only  at- 
tracted those  as  gloomy  and  dis- 
heartened as  herself.  Yet  she  was 
a  woman  of  brains,  whom  it  would 
have  been  a  pleasure  and  distinc- 
tion to  present  to  people  if  she 
had  not  been  such  a  mournful  ego- 
tist. She  asked  to  be  loved,  but 
never  once  asked  herself  if  she 
were  lovely.  She  sought  cheerful, 
attractive   people,   but    made    no 


r. 
I.' 


i' 


I 


'•rf*,*-  •-  »««^  V-*»%*'»^.  _. 


74 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


effort  to  get  in  harmony  with  their 
happy  views  and  amiable  moods, 
but  radiated  gloom,  and  talked  of 
her  woe-begone  self,  detailing  her 
physical  pains  and  her  mental  dis- 
tresses.     The  most  warm-hearted 
of  the  cheerful  people  she  met,  who 
sought   to  make  life  less  difficult 
for  her,  finally  left  her  to  herself, 
explaining,  "She's  impossible."   If 
she  had  tried  to  cultivate  courage, 
hope,   cheerfulness,   and  gracious- 
ness  she  would  have  soon  been 
swept  into  a  tide  of  healthier,  hap- 
pier, and   more    successful   condi- 
tions.   It  is  possible  for  every  miser- 
able, slaving,  unhappy  being  just 
like  her,  or  unattractive,  pessimis- 
tic-looking men,    to    make    them- 


TO   ATTRACT    SUCCESS 


75 


selves  over.  Yes,  literally  over, 
and  become  magnets  that  will  at- 
tract what  is  desirable. 

You  say,  '*  It  is  all  very  well,  when 
you  are  comfortable  and  life  is  easy, 
for  you  to  sit  up  and  spin  out  these 
fine  theories ;  but  look  at  me  I  am 
poor  and  unhappy.  I  have  few 
friends,  I  have  no  pleasures,  I  wish 
I  were  dead."  As  long  as  you  say 
these  things,  think  these  things, 
you  will  be  poor,  unhappy,  and 
unloved.  Your  external  environ- 
ment and  conditions  are  in  a  great 
measure  but  the  materialization  and 
reflection  of  your  inward  states. 
'*  Whatever  we  think  about  we 
produce  within  us  and  attract  to 
us,  and   the   more  we  dislike   the 


Ali 


I 


r; 


' 


I! 


1/ 


76 


SUCCESS   IS    FOR   YOU 


approach  of  any  appearance  the 
more  surely  and  quickly  do  we 
draw  it  to  us  or  express  it  within 
us."  Job  testified  to  the  truth  of 
this  philosophy  when  he  said,*'  That 
which  I  most  feared  is  come  upon 


me. 


11 


In  the  words  of  the  late  Prentice 
Mulford : 

"  Stop  worrying  over  anticipated 
discords.  Keep  your  mind  in  the 
present.  You  only  intensify  and 
hasten  discord  by  worry,  and  at 
the  same  time  you  take  from  the 
present  those  forces  which  should 
be  employed  in  the  present,  and 
which  would  fortify  you  against 
the  anticipated  discords.  Disabuse 
your  mind  of  the  belief  that  there 


TO   ATTRACT    SUCCESS 


n 


is  anything  too  good  for  you; 
place  the  mark  of  your  ambition 
high,  and  always  hold  it  in  view  ; 
never  relinquish  it  for  a  moment 
no  matter  how  crushing  the  in- 
fluence brought  to  bear  against  it. 
Your  body  will  soon  be  where  your 
aspiration  always  is,  provided  you 
hold  there  unwaveringly. 

"  If  in  mind  you  abase  yourself 
before  another's  talent  or  their 
grander  style  of  living,  or  are  over- 
awed by  their  pretentiousness  into 
a  sort  of  envious  humility,  or  into 
that  sinful  self-depreciation  which 
is  ever  saying,  *I  can't  stand 
there,'  you  place  the  greatest  of 
barriers  to  standing  there.  Look 
always  on  the  best  things  the  world 


m 


y 


78 


SUCCESS   IS    FOR   YOU 


can  give  as  if  they  were  yours,  not 
the  houses,  carriages,  and  fine 
clothes  of  others  as  yours,  but 
others  like  them  when  you  earn 
them,  and  earn  them  you  can,  if  you 
have  sufficient  faith  in  the  spiritual 
law  or  mental  condition  of  mind 
which  brings  these  things,  and  is 
the  only  force  which  really  ever 
brings  them  to  any  one." 


CHAPTER  X. 


TRUST  THYSELF. 


OUCCESS  or  failure  in  any  line^ 
^     is  dependent  upon  the  faith    | 
of  the  thinker  in  his  power  to  ac-    I 
complish    the    work   before    him.     | 
The    positive   character    that    de-  J 
termines  to   attain   the   thing  de- 
sired must  approach  more  nearly 
the  goal  than  the  vacillating,  hesi- 
tating thinker  who  fears  failure. 
**  Trust  thyself:    every  heart   vi- 
brates  to  that  iron  string''  The  law 
of  echo  makes  this  inspiriting  line 
from  Emerson  practical  and  prov- 
able.    If  you  project  thoughts  of 
courage,  of  trust  in  your  own  abil- 

79 


.11 


! 


m. 


Ii 


80 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR    YOU 


ity  to  succeed,  you  awaken  answer- 
ing vibrations  of  trust  in  you  in  the 
hearts  of  even  those  who  are  not  in 
spiritual  or  mental  rapport  with 
you.  It  is  proven  that  when  we 
change  our  chemical  condition 
mentally  we  change  perforce  our 
radiations.  These  changes  can  be 
scientifically  regulated  by  govern- 
ing our  thoughts  aright,  and  we 
may  become  effectual  magnets  of 
success.  This  law  is  illustrated 
every  day  in  every  line  of  business. 
A  chambermaid  who  did  her  work 
well,  kept  herself  neat,  minded  her 
own  business  and  proved  herself  so 
reliable  in  every  way,  impressed 
the  observing  housekeeper  in  a 
fashionable  hotel — one  of  the  mod- 


TRUST   THYSELF 


81 


ern  palaces— that  she  was  capable 
of  filling  a  higher  position.     She 
was  promoted  from  one  service  to 
another  until  she  became  assistant 
housekeeper.      In    all    phases    of 
service  she   bore   herself  'Mike  a 
lady."     She    walked    quietly    and 
had     a    dignified,     self-respecting 
bearing.    She  was  low-voiced,  court- 
eous,  and    amiable.      She    fitted 
into  each  position  with  easy  adapt- 
ability.    After    she   had    finished 
arranging  her  rooms,  before   she 
closed  a  door  she  inspected  each 
one  as    if  she  were  a  thorough 
housekeeper.     She  really  was  one. 
Do  you   not  see  that  it  did   not 
require  a  very  vivid  imagination  to 
picture  her  filling  satisfactorily  and 


n 


-    .1 


82 


SUCCESS    IS   FOR    YOU 


successfully  the  position  of  assistant 
housekeeper?  In  thinking  of  her 
work  and  doing  it  as  a  housekeeper 
would,  she  radiated  thought-forces 
that  eventually  attracted  the  actual 
place  to  her.  She  did  not  put 
herself  into  the  position  by  fretting 
for  it,  nor  did  she  waste  time  in 
envying  those  above  her,  nor  did 
she  lose  thought-force  in  idly 
dreaming  that  some  day  she  would 
be  a  housekeeper.  She  simply  did 
her  work  as  if  she  were  as  respon- 
sible for  the  care  and  appearance 
of  the  rooms  as  the  housekeeper 
was.  She  really  was  an  assistant 
housekeeper  all  the  time,  and  she  un- 
derstood her  work  so  well  that  she 
had  trust  in  her  ability  to  fill  the 


TRUST    THYSELF  83 

high  position  that  was  offered  her, 
and  awakened  a  responsive  echo 
of  belief  in  her  powers  of  ac- 
complishment in  the  minds  of  those 
in  authority. 

The  thought-force  of  those  who 
have  strong,  steadfast  faith  in  their 
own  ability  to  do,  is  so  convincing 
that  although  they  may  have  little 
skill,  knowledge,  and  real  talent 
they  so  influence  people  to  believe 
in  them  that  they  often  secure 
positions  that  more  expert  and 
talented  but  self-distrusting  and 
timid  men  and  women  are  unable 
to  get 


III 


1  ^i 


'\% 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  MIEN  OF  A  POOR  MAN. 

DO  you  not  see  that  it  is  your 
own  attitude  toward  life 
and  your  work  that  affects  you 
more  than  anything  else  in  the 
world  ?  A  laboring  man,  evidently 
embittered,  wrote  to  the  editor  of 
a  brilliant  daily,  suggesting  to  him 
that  if  he  went  to  look  for  work 
with  the  mien  and  clothes  of  a 
poor  man,  he  could  find  out  for 
himself  with  what  scant  courtesy  a 
poor  man  was  treated. 

**  TAe  mien  of  a  poor  man''  In 
that  phrase  the  writer  unwittingly 
reveals  the  reason  for  the  "  scant 


THE    MIEN   OF   A    POOR    MAN      85 

courtesy."  What  is  the  mien  of  a 
poor  man  ?  If  it  is  that  of  envious 
humility ;  of  self-abasement ;  of 
cringing  appeal,  or  of  abject  ser- 
vility, it  richly  deserves  to  be 
treated  with  scant  courtesy.  Why 
should  any  self-respecting  working- 
man  or  woman  who  gives  skill, 
labor,  and  time  in  exchange  for 
money  assume  the  attitude  of  a 
beggar  when  he  or  she  seeks  em- 
ployment ?  If  you  must  for  a  time 
wear  the  shabby  clothes  of  a  beg- 
gar, I  beseech  you  not  to  have  the 
mien  of  a  beggar,  or  your  person- 
ality, your  bearing,  will  suggest  to 
those  to  whom  you  go  for  employ- 
ment, or  to  your  acquaintances,  that 
you  will  never  be  anything  else  but 


\ 


... 


(I 


86 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


a  beggar,  and  you  will  be  treated 
with   the   condescending    benevo- 
lence   or    brutal    indifference   the 
unthinking  bring  down  upon  them- 
selves.    Remember  character,   in- 
tegrity of  purpose,  and  self-respect 
lend  distinction  to  any  sort  of  suit. 
Believe  me,  if  you  carry  yourself 
like  a   self-respecting,    self-reliant 
man  who  knows  he  has  the  skill 
and  ability  to  give  in  perfect  ser- 
vice   a   good    return    for    money 
received,   you   will   be  granted  a 
respectful   hearing  that  a  beggar 
never  can  nor  will  be  able  to  com- 
mand.    If  one  person  has  no  place 
for  you,  he  may  be  able  to  suggest 
to  you  somebody  who  does  need 
just  such  work  as  you  offer,  if  you 


THE   MIEN   OF   A   POOR   MAN      87 

offer  it  in  a  manly  or  womanly 
way. 

Apropos  of  this  let  me  tell 
you  another  true  story.  A  high- 
bred girl  was  thrown  upon  her 
own  resources,  and  like  many 
another  of  her  cultured  but  un- 
trained class  she  did  not  know  what 
to  do,  but  was  bravely  ready  to  try 
any  reputable  thing.  A  physician 
whose  eyes  were  weak  offered  to 
teach  her  short  hand  if  she  would 
read  to  him.  She  accepted  the 
proposition.  When  she  knew  his 
easily  learned  system  of  shorthand, 
he  told  her  he  wished  some  notes 
of  lectures  transcribed  on  a  type- 
writing machine  and  asked  her  if 
she  knew  how    to  use  one.     She 


1 


I   : 


*»«»!• '."la 


I      «■-  1  a.  •  •»■    >  _  , 


J, 


^> 


88 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


I 


I 


did  not,  but  said  she  could  learn, 
she  supposed.  He  said,  "Of  course 
you  can  and  these  notes  will  be  a 
splendid  discipline."     They  proved 
a  terrible  discipline  for  they  abound- 
ed in  medical  terms.     With  tear- 
ful determination  the  girl  worked 
at    them    until    the   whole   series 
of  lectures  was  completed.     Her 
work  proved  so  satisfactory  that 
the  physician  said,  **  Now  you  must 
get  a  little  office  down-town,  such 
intelligence  as  yours  is  needed  in 
the  business  world."     Quick  to  act 
the  girl  soon  heard  of  a  desirable 
place  in  the  rooms  of  a  big  firm 
on  one  of  the  main  streets  of  the 
city.     She  asked  the  president  of 
the  corporation  for  the   privilege 


THE    MIEN    OF   A    POOR   MAN      89 

of  renting  an  available  corner  in 
one  of  the  offices  which  she  would 
pay  rent  for  in  money  or  in  ser- 
vice, if  extra  work  was  needed. 
The  firm  had  its  own  type-writer. 
No  available  corner  was  at  the 
president's  disposal.  The  girl 
thanked  him  for  his  courteous  at- 
tention and  left  Two  days  after 
she  received  a  note  telling  her  cer- 
tain changes  had  been  made  and  it 
was  necessary  to  have  another 
type-writer  in  the  firm,  and  the 
position  was  at  her  refusal.  She 
accepted  it,  explaining  she  had 
never  been  in  an  office  and  might 
not  suit  at  all,  but  she  was  willing 
to  try.  The  president,  a  keen 
reader  of  character  said,  "  I  think 


I 

4 


I 


IlllnUiagitl:  Jf'li. 


..^^  .;f4iL.;i^k»^  "i{(i^l|!JL . 


ys 


U 


i  t 


90 


SUCCESS   IS    FOR    YOU 


you  can  fill  the  place,  I  judged 
from  the  way  you  presented  your 
own  case  the  other  day  that  you 
have  business  instincts,  if  not 
knowledge,  and  from  your  appear- 
ance and  manner  I  readily  infer 
that  you  have  the  intelligence  to 
do  the  work  and  that  you  also  can 
understand  the  requirements  of  a 
business  office.  The  affairs  of  the 
office  are  never  to  be  discussed 
out  of  it,  and  it  is  a  rule,  as  there 
are  several  of  your  sex  here,  as 
you  see,  that  there  shall  be  no 
friendships  in  the  office."  The 
girl  accepted  the  position,  and  filled 
it  satisfactorily  until  she  resigned 
to  accept  a  position  of  more  re- 
sponsibility, from   which   she   was 


THE    MIEN   OF   A    POOR   MAN      9 1 

graduated  into  another  place  of 
still  greater  responsibility.  Her 
employer  remarked,  "That  girl 
has  intelligence  and  ability  far 
above  merely  mechanical  type-writ- 
ing." A  place  of  honor  and  trust 
as  private  secretary  at  a  large  salary 
was  given  to  her. 

This  girl  had  never  cringed  in 
her  life.  It  is  very  true  that 
having  been  comparatively  rich, 
and  educated  at  a  fashionable 
boarding-school  among  wealthy 
girls,  she  had  never  been  made 
to  feel  class-distinctions.  She  had 
the  perfect  breeding  that  gives 
poise  and  surety  of  one's  self. 
She  neither  was  servile  in  her  bear- 
ing when  she  sought  employment, 


ii 


\ 


)] 


\i 


ii 


•.^fc.     ^^1,  V 


« 


92 


SUCCESS   IS    FOR   YOU 


nor  had  she  the  air  of  a  ruler  in 
a  large  kingdom.  She  simply  had 
the  atmosphere  and  carriage  of  a 
well-bred,  modest  young  gentle- 
woman, whose  self-command  was 
the  result  of  training  and  of  min- 
gling with  men  and  women  of  the 
polite  world.  She  had  the  uncon- 
scious self-trust  of  a  courteous  child, 
and  radiated  character  qualities  of 
cheery  self-reliance,  loyalty,  and 
faithfulness  in  service  and  womanly 
self-respect  that  won  recognition 
and  appreciation  in  every  place  she 
filled.  Perhaps  this  is  another  il- 
lustration where  temperament  and 
breeding  conspired  toward  success. 
It  is  possible,  however,  as  many  a 
progressive  man  and  woman  has 


>ll>'i  <WI>I» 


\\ 


i'. 


THE    MIEN   OF   A    POOR   MAN      93 

proven,  to   make   one's  self  over 
and  develop  just  such  qualities. 

When  a  man  seeks  employment 
does  he  not  offer  the  fruits  of  his 
spirit;  his  time;  the  work  of  his 
hands,  and  his  skill  for  another 
man's  money  ?  Is  it  not  a  fair 
business  proposition  ?  Is  it  not  an 
exchange  of  values  ?  Money  is  not 
the  only  value,  it  is  only  one  of 
the  values  in  the  world.  If  a  man 
by  his  beggarly  mien  and  servility 
when  he  seeks  employment  thus 
plainly  undervalues  his  labor,  is  it 
surprising  that  the  one  to  whom 
he  goes  treats  him  as  if  he  were  a 
beggar  asking  for  alms,  instead  of 
a  noble  workingman  offering  his 
services  for  the  mutual  benefit  of 


t 


4 


94 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


both  ?     The  attitude  of  mean  sub- 
mission of  some  poor  men  is  as 
responsible  for  the  despicable  ar- 
rogance   displayed    by  some   rich 
men,  as  the  latter  is  for  the  former. 
They  react  upon  and  make  one  an- 
other.    If  the  employers  bearing 
toward  the  workingman  is  the  right 
one,  he  gives  the  laborer  more  than 
money.    If  the  workingman  s  bear- 
ing toward   his    employer  is   the 
right  one,  he  gives  him  more  than 
his  labor.     Each  one  gives  to  the 
other  what  cannot  be    paid   for, 
yet  it  is  the  most  precious  part  of 
their  mutual  relationship.     Many  a 
grown-up  should  go  to  the  kinder- 
garten and  learn  the  spiritual  sig- 
nificance   of    service.     The    child 


THE    MIEN    OF   A    POOR    MAN      95 

learns  how  the  farmer  is  indebted 
to  the  miller  for  converting  his 
wheat  into  flour ;  how  the  miller 
is  indebted  to  the  baker  ;  how  the 
baker  is  indebted  to  the  grocer- 
man,  and  finally  how  the  customer 
is  indebted  to  the  grocerman's 
clerk.  Each  by  his  service  helps 
the  other  and  enables  the  other  to 
stay  at  his  post  and  do  his  special 
work.  They  all  serve  the  last 
buyer  of  the  small  loaf,  who  is 
saved  the  time  and  trouble  of 
grinding  out  his  bread  cake  like  a 
savage.  It  is  this  ennobling  inter- 
dependence that  makes  service  a 
beautiful  privilege  and  a  high  pleas- 
ure. Cultivate  a  respect  for  your 
own  powers.     Respect  your  work 


96 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR    YOU 


whatever  it  is.  Lilian  Whiting 
speaks  so  pertinently  anent  this 
very  subject  that  I  delight  in  quot- 
ing her.     She  says : 

**To  hold  one's  work — whether 
it  be  that  of  selling  goods  behind 
a  counter,  or  building  a  house,  or 
work  in  the  professions,  the  arts, 
or  the  industries,  to  hold  it  as  that 
which  forms  one  s  medium  of  ex- 
pression, one's  part  in  the  general 
cpmmunity,  by  means  of  which  he 
conveys  with   his  work,  his  good 
will,  his  generous  sympathy, — the 
entire    support,    indeed,    of    that 
magnetic  love  which  radiates  from 
him  who  has  the  love  of  God  and 
the  love  of  man  in  his  heart, — to 
give  thus  always  of  one's  best  is 


THE    MIEN    OF   A    POOR   MAN      97 

the  true  success  in  life.  The  lin- 
gering idea  that  there  is  caste  in 
work  is  an  unworthy  one.  The 
only  caste  is  in  character." 

When  you  assume  the  attitude 
of  a  beggar  you  reflect  upon  God 
and  demean  your  spirit,  which  it  is 
your  high  privilege  to  set  forth  as 
nobly  .as  possible.  What  would 
you  think  of  an  electrician  who 
apologized  in  envious  humility  be- 
cause the  illuminating  threads  of 
sunlight  generated  under  his  con- 
trol were  allowed  by  him  to  glow 
through  muddy  ill-formed  globes, 
which  were  offensive  to  the  sight 
beside  lamps  as  clear  as  crystal- 
ized  bubbles?  Are  you  not  an 
electrode  of  Divine  Force  ?     Is  not 


98 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


II 


I ' 


I 


I 


your  work,  whatever  it  may  be,  a 
visible  showing  of  the  way  you  use 
the  Divine  Force  within  you  ?  Do 
you  not  see  that  the  right  kind  of 
self-trust  is  absolute  faith  in  this 
power  within  you  to  aid  you  to  do 
whatever  you  have  to  do  ?  You  are 
butthe  instrument.  Like  the  master 
electrician  you  can  direct  the  force 
within  you  to  give  light,  pleasure, 
comfort,  and  help  to  whatever  and 
whomsoever  comes  within  your 
atmosphere ;  or,  you  can  so  mis- 
direct it  or  neglect  to  use  it,  that 
darkness,  discomfort,  despair  comes 
to  yourself  and  all  who  come  with- 
in touch  of  you. 


, 


CHAPTER   XII. 

PROJECT    YOUR   WORK    ARIGHT. 

IF  you  realize  what  real  self-trust 
is,  you  cannot  confound  it  with 
self-conceit.  The  self-conscious 
timidity  of  many  who  bewail  their 
sensitiveness  is  but  the  most  dis- 
heartening expression  of  self-con- 
ceit. They  are  ever  thinking  of 
themselves.  The  selves  they  have 
projected,  not  of  the  spirit  which 
is  of  them  yet  not  of  them,  just  as 
the  yolk  of  an  egg,  different  in  form 
and  color,  is  in  and  not  of  the  white 
substance  that  surrounds  it,  yet 
both  are  one.  The  right  kind  of 
self-trust   bids   a   man   or  woman 

99 


lOO 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


achieve,  relying  on  their  spirit  and 
forgetting  absolutely  their  own 
personality.  They  have  no  false 
pride  that  is  wounded  because 
somebody  has  failed  to  do  defer- 
ence to  their  fancied  importance. 
To  express  the  work  of  their  spirit 
is  the  main  thing  with  them.  If 
you  project  your  work  aright,  it 
will  speak  for  itself.  It  is  your 
duty,  however,  to  project  it  aright 
Too  many  of  us  are  like  the 
proud,  snobbish  old  woman  who 
became  so  poor  she  had  to  take  the 
cherries  that  grew  in  her  garden 
into  the  streets  to  sell.  They  were 
toothsome  and  luscious,  deep,  red 
beauties,  shining  with  seductive 
brightness.      She  did  not  see  their 


PROJECT  YOUR  WORK  ARIGHT      lOI 

value.  She  only  saw  her  poor, 
miserable  self,  reduced  in  circum- 
stances, carrying  them.  She 
sought  aback  street  and  mournfully 
murmured,  '*  Cherries  !  Cherries ! 
Good  heaven,  I  hope  nobody  hears 
me  ! "  Nobody  did.  She  went 
home  and  wept,  and  bitterly  com- 
plained of  the  heartlessness  in  the 
world,  just  as  ten  thousand  of  her 
kind  have  done,  are  doing  and  will 
do  until  they  learn  to  see  how 
shabby  and  despicable  they  make 
themselves,  and  how  they  demean 
the  spirit  within  them.  The  old 
woman  had  more  cheap  pride  than 
character,  more  cowardly  self-con- 
ceit than  womanly  courage.  Are 
not  many  of  us  like  her?     If  she 


I02 


SUCCESS    IS    FOR    YOU 


had  been  brave  enough  to  stand  in 
the  highway,  forgetting  her  miser- 
able self  and  thinking  only  of  pre- 
senting her  fruit  attractively  as  she 
cheerily  piped  out,  ''Cherries! 
Cherries  ! "  can  you  not  readily 
picture  her  going  home  with  a 
serene  countenance,  carrying  an 
empty  basket  that  must  be  filled 
on  the  morrow  ?  If  she  had  taken 
this  attitude  toward  the  world  and 
her  work,  does  it  not  seem  quite 
probable  that  her  fruit  would  have 
soon  become  known  and  that  after 
a  time  people  would  have  sought 
the  garden  ?  Believe  me,  the  world 
is  a  mirror,  it  reflects  back  to  you 
the  face  you  present  to  it,  and  you 
get  out  of  the  world  just  what  you 


PROJECT  YOUR  WORK  ARIGHT      IO3 

put  into  it.  If  you  make  no  effort 
to  let  It  know  what  you  have  done 
It  makes  no  effort  to  find  out  what 
you  have  done.  Is  not  this  the 
just  working  of  law  ?  If  you  make 
no  action,  there  will  be  no  re-action. 
If  you  do  not  sing  out,  can  you  get 
an  echo  ?  You  know,  of  course, 
in  the  law  of  echo  that  the  angle 
the  ray  of  sound  makes  with  a  wall 
or  a  hill  upon  approaching  it,  will 
be  the  same  made  by  the  ray  of 
sound  when  it  leaves  the  wall  or 
hill.  But  mark  this  ;  unless  you 
stand  in  the  proper  place  in  the 
line  of  the  angle  of  reflection,  it 
will  be  observed  that  the  sound  can- 
not be  heard  at  all,  or,  if  it  is  heard, 
it  is  heard  with  difficulty  and  is  in- 


1*J    I 


104 


SUCCESS  IS   FOR   YOU 


distinct  and  not  at  all  impressive. 
Do  you  not  catch  the  hint  ?    Does 
it  not  behoove  us  all  to  find  the 
place  where  the  conditions  are  the 
best  for  the  clearest  and  most  re- 
sponsive echo  to  our  call  ?     There 
are  other  laws  of  course,  as  I  have 
tried  to  show,  besides  the  law  of 
echo   with   which  we  must  be  in 
harmony  to  be  completely  in  touch 
with  the  uplifting  and  helpful  con- 
ditions of  the  world.  Of  all  classes, 
the  artistic  one,   whose  sensitive 
temperament   is    its   joy    and    its 
curse,  should  note  the  workings  of 
the  law  of  echo,  the  law  of  action 
and  re-action  and  the  law  of  vibra- 
tion especially,  as  it  works  not  only 
in  deeds  and  words  but  in  thoughts 


PROJECT  YOUR  WORK  ARIGHT     IDS 

of  positive,  cheerful  self-trust. 
Many  of  this  class  suffer  needless 
pain  and  poverty  through  ignoble 
pride.  They  are  those  "  who 
from  carelessness,  timidity,  or  ig- 
norance of  practical  life,  imagine 
that  everything  is  done  that  can  be 
when  the  work  is  completed,  and 
wait  for  public  admiration  and  for- 
tune to  break  in  on  them  by  es- 
calade and  burglary.  They  live,  so 
to  say,  on  the  outskirts  of  life,  in 
isolation  and  inertia.  We  used  to 
know  a  small  school  composed  of 
men  of  this  type,  so  strange,  that 
one  finds  it  hard  to  believe  in  their 
existence ;  they  styled  themselves 
the  disciples  of  art  for  art's  sake. 
According  to  these  simpletons,  art 


K    .'" 


1 06  SUCCESS   IS    FOR   YOU 

for  art's  sake  consisted  in  deifying 
one  another,  in  abstaining  from 
helping  Chance,  who  did  not  even 
know  their  address,  and  in  waiting 
for  pedestals  to  come  of  their  own 
accord  and  place  themselves  under 
them."  Henri  Murger  wrote  the 
foregoing  more  than  fifty  years 
ago.  The  class  to  which  he  re- 
fers is  as  numerous  to-day  as  it 
was  then.  * 

If  they  write  they  think  their 
manuscripts  are  such  precious, 
heaven-born  documents  that  people 
should  seek  them  with  eagerness 
and  haste.  They  do  not  regard 
them  as  disposable  commodities  for 
which  they  must  find  the  right 
market     They  do  not  keep  alert 


ll 


PROJECT  YOUR  WORK  ARIGHT      107 

to  know  what  the  market  wants 
and  they  do  not  offer  their  wares 
with  dignified  self-respect.  "  Ped- 
dle em  as  if  they  were  apples," 
was  the  terse  and  practical  advice 
of  Frank  M.  Pixley,  the  late  brilliant 
editor  of  the  San  Francisco  Argo- 
naut ^  to  a  trembling  sentimental  girl 
who  offered  him  a  manuscript  with 
the  air  of  a  convict  about  to  receive 
a  death  sentence.  "  If  one  man 
does  not  want  your  apples  another 
man  may.  Don't  be  afraid  of  me 
or  anybody." 

If  this  sensitive  class  who  think 
they  are  ** gleaming  in  obscurity" 
paint,  they  have  the  same  timidity. 
Their  pictures  are  too  fine  to  be 
regarded  as  marketable.     Through 


U 


l!i 


M 


m 


1 08         SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 

self-conscious  pride  they  suffer  and 
grow  poor  and  despairing  and  unat- 
tractive in  their  studios.  Their  mor- 
bid, bewailing  Selves  form  screens 
that  shut   their  work   from  view. 
What  would  happen  to  a  farmer  who 
sat  in  his  granary  looking  at  his 
wheat,  bemoaning  his  fate  and  rail- 
ing against  God  and  man,  because 
wheat  dealers  who  did  not  know  of 
his  existence  failed  to  come  after  it  ? 
If  you  do  something  worthy  and 
present  it  in  the  proper  way  and  the 
world  finds  it  cheering,  uplifting,  or 
even  healthily  diverting,  you  will 
more  likely  have  to  run  from  those 
who  will  seek  you  with  devouring 
appreciation  than  weep  because  you 
are  not  sought  for.    But  mark  this, 


PROJECT  YOUR  WORK  ARIGHT      IO9 

the  world  rightly  demands  joy.     It 
does  not  want  to  be  reminded  of  the 
woe  and  misery  in  it.     It  wishes  to 
forget  them.    Remember,  "  To  cul- 
tivate  a   sense   of  pleasure   is  to 
civilize."     Project  your  work  what- 
ever  it    may  be — selling    ribbons 
over  a  counter,  making  out  unin- 
teresting law  briefs,  cooking,  wait- 
ing on  table,  reading,  or  singing — 
cheerfully.     Give  joy  and  get  joy. 
You  need  not  do  it  so  much  in 
words  as  in  your  emanations.   The 
inexhaustible   sun  is  behind  each 
ray  of  sunlight,  the  immeasurable 
source  of  Divine  Force  is  behind 
you.     Why  should  you  not  radiate 
a  sunny,  self-trust  and  make  what- 
ever you  touch  luminous  ? 


1^ 


\>  i«. 


XIII. 

NOBLE   SELF-ASSERTION. 

T^HE   proper  kind  of  self-trust 
i       begets  self-assertion  and  self- 
assertion  is  one  of  the  most  potent 
elements  of  success.     That  is  the 
eason  so  many  of  the  so-called  bad, 
selfish,  disagreeable  people  in  life 
succeed.     They  assert  themselves. 
They  make  themselves  a  steady, 
driving  force  before  which  the  neg- 
ative, the  unwisely  sensitive,  and 
the    ignobly    humble    go    down. 
They  attain  a  certain  kind  of  suc- 
cess, a  material  sort.     They  want 
money  and  they  bend  every  energy, 
every  thought  to  get  it,  and  in  many 

no 


l«/-:,=- 


j|H[*f-   fjt 


NOBLE   SELF-ASSERTION         III 

instances  they  get  what  they  strive 
for.     They  assert  their  own  conceit 
in  a  continuous,  concentrated  in- 
domitable  way  and  they  get   on 
where  really  better,  but  lazier  and 
more  timid  ones  fail.     They  are 
willing  to  make  the  effort  and  they 
are   rewarded   according   to   their 
effort.     The  noblest  self-assertion 
is  not  the  self-assertion  of  the  brag- 
gart, who  not  only  boasts  of  his 
work  but  boasts  of  himself,  ignor- 
ing God  or  any  Divine  Force  ex- 
cept his  own  muscular  energy  and 
mental  power.     He  dominates  by 
sheer  physical  and  the  lowest  sort 
of  mental  force,  because  he  projects 
it  with  imperturbable  courage.    His 
phase  of  assertion  is  a  symbol  of 


i 


r 

I 


C 


112 


sucx:ess  is  for  you 


the  higher  and  better.  His  lowest 
expression  of  self-assertion  wins 
because  insistent  energy  and 
courage  and  the  cheerfulness  born 
of  his  success  are  spiritual  qualities 
in  anyone.  They  draw  success  to 
the  froward  as  well  as  to  the  self- 
respecting,  dignified  worker  who  is 
determined  to  win  without  tram- 
pling over  his  fellow-men  to  do  it. 
The  currents  in  the  ocean  bear  the 
ships  of  the  pirates  as  swiftly  as 
they  do  the  steamers  of  the  mer- 
chantmen. Sunshine  lights  a 
brothel  as  radiantly  as  it  does  a 
sanctuary.  Fire  makes  even  refuse 
beautiful.  Under  its  beneficent 
influence  a  dirty  old  bone,  a  worm- 
eaten  dead  branch  will  give  forth 


NOBLE    SELF-ASSERTION         113 

warmth  aftd  become  instruments  of 
comfort  and  power.     Sunlight,  air, 
water,  and  fire,  which  are  for  the 
use  of  all,  giving  life  or  death  ac- 
cording as  they  are  used  rightly  or 
wrongly,  are  they  not  symbols  of 
the  Divine  Forces  within  us  ?     In 
ignoble  instruments  they  are  igno- 
bly  expressed,   but  they  are  not 
without  power.      Remember  this 
when  you  are  inclined  to  arraign 
God  for  partiality  and  to  look  with 
murderous  envy  upon  your  fellow- 
men.     Is  it  not  yourself  that  you 
should  challenge  ? 

The  self-assertion  of  braggarts, 
it  is  easily  seen,  is  not  the  finest 
kind.  They  win  something,  but 
they  lose  many  of  the  most  enrich- 

9 


I 


114 


SUCCESS    IS    FOR   YOU 


ing  experiences  of  life.  They  as- 
sert themselves  and  their  achieve- 
ments in  such  a  way  that  they 
become  bores,  and  unless  people 
have  to  do  business  with  them  they 
avoid  them.  The  force  that  helps 
them  to  succeed  in  material  lines, 
when  misused  deprives  them  of  the 
social  and  spiritual  enjoyments  of 
life.  They  are  not  welcomed  at 
the  tables  of  the  cultured  and  re- 
fined and  doors  once  opened  to 
them,  through  their  lack  of  tact, 
courtesy,  and  consideration  they 
find  shut  upon  them.  But  even  as 
objectionable  as  this  intrusive  form 
of  self-assertion  is,  it  is  better  than 
the  envious  humility  of  the  mourn- 
fully modest.     Self-contempt,  self- 


NOBLE    SELF-ASSERTION        II 5 

depreciation  are  the  worst  forms  of 
pride.     Self-abasement  is  the  neg- 
ative expression  of  the  same  pride 
of  which  offensive  self-assertion  is 
the  positive.      If  the  positive  ex- 
pression  is  cheerful,   of  course  it 
wins.     But,  as  you  no  doubt  have 
noticed,    if   the   braggart    has   no 
other  claim  to  recognition  than  his 
push  and  persistence  he  is  finally 
measured  for  his  just  value  and  is 
not  able  to  hold  places  which  for  a 
time  he  usurped   by  sheer  force. 
But  why  should  any  of  us  either 
manifest  the  ignoble  self-assertion 
of  the  braggart   or   the  negative 
self-approval  of  the  self-depreciator 
when  we  have  the  sweet  privilege 
of  showing  forth  the  highest  kind 


I .  I 


I 


^1 


n 


ii6 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


of  self-assertion  ?  It  is  not  only 
our  privilege  but  our  manly  and 
womanly  duty.  What  is  the  high- 
est kind  of  self-assertion?  It  is 
spiritual  self-assertion.  Spiritual 
self-assertion  is  not  self-conscious 
conceit  It  is  the  unconscious 
emanation  of  a  self-sufficing,  self- 
relying,     self-controlled    man    or 

woman,  who  has  self-knowledge 
and    self-reverence.        It    is    the 

quickening  radiation  of  a  serene, 
sunny,  self-poised  soul.  Self-poised 
because  conscious  that  if  it  assume 
the  right  attitude  toward  its  work 
and  the  world  it  is  backed  by  Om- 
nipotence Itself.  It  is  the  asser- 
tion of  the  Soul.  **  Who  has  more 
soul  than  I  masters  me  though  he 


NOBLE   SELF-ASSERTION        II 7 

• 

should  not  raise  a  finger."  Give 
your  soul  room.  If  you  doubt  that 
you  have  a  soul  to  express  in  the 
highest  form  of  self-assertion,  you 
can  prove  for  yourself  how  potent 
in  success  is  self-assertion  in  its 
lowest  form,  so  of  the  two  forms  of 
ignoble  pride  chose  self-approval 
instead  of  self-depreciation,  and 
cease  to  wail. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE   WISEST   SYMPATHY. 

/   npo  succeed  you  must  not  dissi- 
I      pate  your  precious  force  in 
I    unwise  sympathy.     "Do  not  spill 
I    thy  soul "  in  running  hither  and 
yon  grieving  over  the  misfortunes 
the    mistakes    and    the  vices    of 
others.     The  one  person  whom  it 
is  most  necessary  in  this  world  to 
reform   is  yourself.      "A   sympa- 
thetic   person    is    placed    in    the 
dilemma    of    a    swimmer    among 
drowning  men  who  will  catch  at 
him,  and  if  he  gives  so  much  as  a 
leg  or  a  finger,  they  will  drown  him. 
They  wished    to   be   saved   from 


Ii8 


THE   WISEST  SYMPATHY       II 9 

the  mischiefs  of  their  vices  but  not 
from  their  vices.  A  wise  and  hardy 
physician  will  say,  come  out  of  that ^ 
as  the  first  condition  of  advice," 
To  truly  sympathize  with  a  friend 
who  is  quivering  with  trouble  or 
sorrow,  is  not  to  respond  to  his 
mood  and  intensify  his  misery  by 
dolorous  remarks  of  agreement 
with  his  mournful  views  of  himself 
and  humanity.  Give  him  mental 
and  physical  invigoration  by  pro- 
jecting clearly  formed  thoughts  of 
courage  and  cheer.  Miserable  folk 
are  in  a  negative  condition,  they 
need  to  have  their  creative  mental 
energies  quickened.  Make  them 
vibrate  with  hope.  Instead  of  tak- 
ing their  minor  key,  woo  them  to 


I20         SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 

take  your  major  note  of  hope  full 
of  resonant  harmony.     Stimulate 
them    to    believe    in    themselves. 
Show   them   how  they  dramatize 
their  woes    and  what    despicable 
satisfaction  they  sometimes  take  in 
being  the  leading  men  and  women 
in  their  particular  scenes  of  woe, 
and  how  eager  they  are  to  have  an 
appreciative  audience  to  weep  with 
them.    Show  them  how  their  super- 
sensitive vanity  magnifies  wrongs 
and  their  morbid  imaginations  ex- 
aggerate mistakes  until  their  trou- 
bles  become   companions.     Show 
them    that    it    is    as    ill-bred    to 
go  around  complaining  of  having 
the  blues  and  inflicting  themselves 
upon  anyone  while  they  are  sel- 


THE   WISEST   SYMPATHY       121 


fishly  meditating  on  their  miseries, 
as  it  is  to  appear  before  others  in 
soiled  clothes,  bad  temper,  and  a 
diseased  condition.  If  they  are  so 
conceited  that  they  prefer  to  think 
always  of  themselves  and  whine 
about  themselves,  leave  them  alone. 
You  say  "  Cruel  philosophy,  see 
how  many  good  people  suffer.  See 
how  many  good  people  fail."  Are 
you  sure  they  are  good  ?  Analyze 
them  before  you  denounce  this 
philosophy  as  unsympathetic  and 
selfish.  Perhaps  if  you  will  take 
the  measure  of  so-called  good  men 
and  women  fairly,  you  will  find 
many  self-righteous  cowards  who 
pass  for  *'  the  good  "  because  they 
are  negative  and  oftentimes  lazy. 


i 


m( 


■li. 


I  li: 


122  SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 

They  have  keyed  their  lives  to 
submission  and  obedience  by  their 
religious  teachings.  They  have 
sung  so  long,  '*  Such  a  worm  as  I," 
that  they  are  content  to  crawl  and 
squirm  like  worms,  and  make  no 
effort  to  fly  and  change  themselves 
into  higher,  freer,  and  more  beauti- 
ful forms.  They  take  a  selfish 
delight  in  self-sacrifice,  ignoble 
self-sacrifice.  They  pretend  to  be 
humble  yet  talk  of  their  glorious 
rewards  in  heaven  and  have  not 
the  nobleness  of  soul  nor  alacrity 
of  spirit  to  enjoy  this  divinely 
beautiful  old  earth.  It  is  true  that 
the  falsely  humble  and  popularly 
supposed  good  people  do  suffer 
pain  and  misery  that  the  popularly 


f 

V 


THE   WISEST.  SYMPATHY       1 23 

supposed  bad  escape.  The  bad 
express  the  force  within  them. 
They  may  do  it  ignobly,  but  they 
do  it.  The  self-abasing  good  do 
not  recognize  God,  they  give  no 
expression  to  the  power  within 
them.  If  you  do  not  sail  your 
boat  in  the  current  why  should  you 
not  be  wrecked?  If  you  do  not 
turn  on  electricity,  or,  if  you  do  not 
use  it  properly  why  should  you  not 
be  in  the  dark,  and  what  is  to  save 
you  from  being  destroyed  by  it? 
The  negatively  good  bring  much 
of  their  troubles  upon  themselves. 
Those  who  make  a  profession  of 
being  humble  have  certain  lines  on 
their  faces  peculiar  to  and  discern- 
ible on  the  faces  of  waiters.      A 


A 


1\ 


)! 


\\ 


Ui 


i  • 


124         SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 

waiter  tells  by  his  attitude,  his  ges- 
ture, the  expression  of  his  face  that 
he  serves.  A  quick  eye  can  single 
out  a  waiter  in  a  group  by  certain 
unmistakable  characteristics.  Peo- 
ple who  believe  in  their  own  inferi- 
ority betray  their  secret  thoughts 
just  as  some  waiters  do  their  occu- 
pation, and  they  look  and  move 
like  waiters.  If  you  are  willing  to 
make  a  doormat  of  yourself,  do  not 
be  surprised  if  people  wipe  their 
feet  on  you  and  kick  you  aside. 
Many  so-called  good  people  by  a 
foolish  obliteration  of  their  individ- 
uality make  doormats  of  themselves. 
They  grow  lean  and  feeble  in  mus- 
cle and  weak  in  spirit  They  have 
no  power  of  resistance.  They  have 


THE   WISEST   SYMPATHY        12$ 


no  power  of  attraction.  It  seems 
almost  cant  to  affirm,  **  It  is  noble 
to  serve,  if  one  serves  nobly,"  for 
the  experienced  know  that  he  com- 
mands best  who  knows  how  to 
serve  best.  It  all  depends  upon 
the  spirit  with  which  you  serve. 
It  is  a  sin  to  be  too  humble.  If  you 
believe  you  are  inferior  and  op- 
pressed  you  unite  yourself  with  a 
great  tide  of  oppression.  You  be- 
come a  depressor,  a  destroyer  of 
energy  and  it  is  your  privilege 
to  be  a  stimulator,  a  creator  of 
energy.  Can  you  not  see  if  you 
are  a  negative,  self-abasing  man  or 
woman  you  deny  the  power  of  God 
in  you  ? 


H 


!!' 


CHAPTER   XV. 

WHOM    AND    WHAT   TO   AVOID. 

REMEMBER,  to  succeed  you 
must  be  wise  in  your  asso- 
ciates, not  only  because  one  of  the 
greatest  riches  in  the  world  is  to  be 
rich  in  the  right  kind  of  friends, 
but  because  it  has  been  proven  by 
one  who  knows : — **  To  be  much  of 
the  time  with  a  gloomy  or  despond- 
ent person,  or  one  fretful,  or  easily 
angered,  or  cynical  or  sceptical,  or 
in  any  way  thinking  evil  or  injuri- 
ous thought,  is  for  you  unsafe.  Be 
you  as  confident,  determined,  and 
courageous  as  you  may,  you  will 
absorb  some  of  their  despondency, 

196 


—  — 


w^ 


WHOM  AND  WHAT  TO  AVOID       I  27 


irresolution,  or  cowardice  and  be 
affected  by  it.  It  will  be  a  blur 
upon  your  judgment.  It  will  be  so 
much  extra  load  of  cowardly  or  ir- 
resolute thought  to  tax  your  cour- 
age and  resolution.  Of  whatever 
evil  quality  that  person  s  thought 
is,  It  will  infect  you  more  or  less 
with  that  quality.  If  you  associate 
with  people  who  tire  and  bore  you, 
you  keep  better,  more  helpful  peo- 
ple away."  Take  no  interest  in  the 
disturbing,  disintegrating  men  and 
women  that  bustle  around  you  like 
buzzing  bumble  bees,  and  they  will 
soon  leave  you  to  your  work.  Pre- 
occupied attention  in  your  own  af- 
fairs is  the  best  and  most  effective 
answer  to  importunate  frivolers  who 


*       n 


w 


128 


SUCCESS    IS    FOR    YOU 


ii  ■' 


I 


would  absorb  your  strength,  vital- 
ity, and  time.  Another  pernicious 
absorber  of  strength  is  worry. 
Much  has  been  said  and  written 
upon  the  health-destroying  power 
of  worry,  yet  few  seem  to  realize 
that  worry  withers  the  bodily 
tissues  and  wastes  vital  force  more 
than  work  does,  no  matter  how 
hard.  Worry  enfeebles  the  nerves 
and  brings  about  a  generally 
wretched  sense  of  weakness  and 
discontent.  It  makes  you  negative 
and  unattractive.  For  health's 
sake,  for  beauty's  sake,  do  not 
worry.  It  is  not  safe.  If  you  do 
not  sleep,  do  not  make  your  bodily 
and  mental  condition  worse  by 
worrying  and  talking  of  your  in- 
somnia.     Look  to  your  food.     If 


WHOM  AND  WHAT  TO  AVOID       1 29 

you  cannot  sleep  after  you  have 
excluded  from  your  meals  drinks 
and  dishes  that  excite  and  stimu- 
late, try  at  least  to  get  some  rest. 
Relax  every  muscle.     Think  only 
of  the  most  delightful  experiences 
you  have  ever  had  ;  the  most  suc- 
cessful things  you  have  ever  done ; 
live  over  in  imagination  the  most 
joyous  scenes  in  your  life.      Feast 
your  mind  at  a  spiritual  banquet. 
Even  if  you  do  not  sleep — and  the 
chances  are  that  you  will — you  will 
rise    refreshed.      Learn   to    swing 
with  the  tide.     Even  in  the  simple 
matter  of  going  down-town  in  a 
cable  car  for  instance,  get  the  mo- 
tion of  the  car.     Get  the  rhythm  of 
the  crowd  and  it  will  stimulate  in- 
stead of  deplete  you. 


I 


I 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  WISDOM   OF    THE   OPTIMIST. 

HOW  can  one  be  cheerful  when 
life  is  SO  tragic?  you  ask. 
When  life  is  so  serious,  and  there 
is  so  much  sadness,  how  can  one 
be  joyful  ?  If  life  is  tragic  to  you, 
perhaps  you  have  made  it  so. 
Perhaps  you  have  made  no  effort 
to  understand  yourself,  and  un- 
stable as  water  you  have  been 
swayed  by  every  changing  circum- 
stance, every  whim,  and  every  im- 
pulse, becoming  a  victim  instead  of 
a  master  of  your  emotions.  Per- 
haps unawares  you  have  been  so 
supremely  selfish  and  exacting  that 

130 


'. 


1 


WISDOM    OF   THE    OPTIMIST       I3I 

you  have  demanded  too  much  of 
others  and  have  exhausted  their  in- 
terest, love,  and  patience.  Perhaps 
you  have  allowed  yourself  to  be 
deceived,  although  you  have  every 
power  within  you  to  aid  you  in 
reading  your  fellow-beings  aright 
Perhaps  you  have  put  false  values 
on  the  accidents  of  wealth  and  so- 
cial position,  and  bewailed  your 
lowly  station  in  life  with  woful  hu- 
mility, forgetting  it  is  the  soul  that 
occupies  the  place  and  not  the 
place  that  commands  our  reverence, 
or  respect,  or  admiration.  The 
Christ  made  a  stable  a  sanctuary. 
Diogenes  lived  in  a  tub. 

Perhaps  you  have  forgotten  that 
all  of  us,  like  polygons,  have  several 


U2 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


^ft 


sides,  and  you  have  not  taken  the 
trouble  to  see  some  apparently  un- 
kind relative  or  associate  from 
every  point  of  view. 

Many  a  high-minded,  but  exact- 
ing wife,  expects  her  husband  to 
live  up  to  her  theories  instead  of 
the  highest  and  best  in  himself,  and 
she  makes  no  effort  to  discover  the 
highest  and  best  in  him,  to  help 
him  nourish  and  show  it  forth. 
Many  a  husband  forms  a  character- 
mould  for  his  wife  to  fit  into,  with- 
out trying  to  tenderly  learn  the  real 
nature  of  his  companion.  He  ex- 
acts from  her  what  his  preconceived 
idea  of  her,  his  caricature  of  her, 
would  do  and  say.  Affection  can- 
not thrive  under  such  treatment. 


kl 


WISDOM   OF   THE   OPTIMIST      1 33 

and  many  an  exacting  husband  and 
wife  have  thus  created  their  own 
sorrow. 

Perhaps  you  have  been  too  self- 
sacrificing.  As  has  been  shown, 
ignoble  self-sacrifice  is  as  bad, 
sometimes  worse,  than  exacting 
selfishness,  because  it  develops 
selfishness  in  others  and  makes  one 
negative  and  powerless  to  hold  and 
attract  the  most  dignified,  ennob- 
ling, and  enduring  kind  of  love. 

You  say  "  How  can  anyone  be 
cheerful  when  death  is  omnipres- 
ent?" It  requires  our  strong- 
est, highest  effort  to  face  the 
desolation  and  loneliness  that  fol- 
low in  the  track  of  death.  May 
we  not  hope  that  anything  so  uni- 


134 


SUCCESS    IS    FOR    YOU 


versal  as  death  must  be  beneficial  ? 
May  we  not  trust,  as  we  watch  the 
workings  of  nature,  that  death  is 
but  another  condition  of  life  ? 
Despite  the  unspeakable  sadness 
that  wrecks  our  own  hearts  we,  at 
least,  should  not  grieve  selfishly. 
Many  a  mourner  grieves  in  a  self- 
pitying  way.  Passionate  grief 
neither  does  the  dead  any  good 
nor  the  living.  It  does  the  latter 
harm.  Death  is  the  Messiah  that 
redeems  us  from  brutal  unkindness 
and  all  uncharitableness.  Without 
death  and  little  children  what 
would  not  the  world  lack  in  gentle- 
ness, loving  kindness,  and  sweet- 
ness? There  is  sadness,  there  is 
misery,  but  to  be  sad  and  miserable 


WISDOM   OF   THE  OPTIMIST      1 35 

only  increases  the  weight  of  woe  In 

the  world.  Your  wailings  do  harm. 
You  can  lessen  the  great  sum  of 
misery  by  making  yourself  such  a 
sunny,  serenely  poised  presence 
that  wherever  you  move  you  will 
radiate  brightness,  you  will  diffuse 
sweetness,  strength,  and  light. 

Try  to  see  how  the  laws  of  na- 
ture work  and  be  an  optimist.  Be 
a  liberal,  tolerant  one.  A  wag 
says  "  A  pessimist  is  one  who  has 
met  an  optimist"  That's  a  fine 
hint  not  to  make  your  optimism 
too  ill-advised,  too  belligerent.  You 
will  hear  the  unreflecting  say, 
"  The  optimist  is  a  fool.  The 
pessimist  understands  life.  He 
gets   below  the   surface  of  things. 


■•hf 


^' 


»:' 


»! 


1    ' 

i'S 


136 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


He  hears  the  ceaseless  murmur  of 
woe  through  all  the  immemorial 
years."  Sing  back  "  The  optimist 
is  the  wise  man.  The  pessimist  is 
the  fool."  The  pessimist  is  worse. 
He  is  a  moral  and  mental  poisoner. 
He  paralyzes  energy.  He  judges 
only  by  defects,  the  lowest  form  of 
judgment,  and  has  not  the  mental 
penetration  to  understand  the 
workings  of  nature*s  laws.  The 
pessimist  looks  at  Niagara  and  says 
"  Useless  sheet  of  water,  thunder- 
ingly  noisy.  Lots  of  men  dashed 
to  pieces  in  the  whirlpool  below. 
Water  everlastingly  flowing,"  and 
he  adds  self-pityingly,  '*  it  will  be 
tumbling  over  these  precipices 
when  I  *m  dead  and  gone."     The 


WISDOM    OF   THE   OPTIMIST       1 37 

optimist  looks  at  the  cataract  ex- 
ultingly.  He  sees  in  it  a  tre- 
mendous object-lesson  of  nature's 
immutable  laws.  He  understands 
if  he  works  in  harmony  with  these 
unchangeable  laws  they  will  serve 
him,  and  he  proceeds  to  use  Niagara 
to  light  a  city.  He  makes  a  cata- 
ract his  toy.  If  the  optimist  is  a 
fool  who  would  be  wise  ? 


■)ii 

^11 


r  J 


< 


XVII. 


^li 


t 


13 


t' 


If  m 


HOW    TO   TRAIN    FOR   SUCCESS. 

TO  recapitulate :  If  you  are  a 
miserable,  despondent,  slav- 
ing, unsuccessful  individual,  get 
hold  of  yourself  this  instant. 

First  get  yourself  into  the  con- 
dition for  success.  If  possible 
have  a  den  of  your  own  into  which 
you  can  go  and  preserve  the  sacred 
and  uninterrupted  seclusion  that 
would  be  granted  you,  if  you  were 
saying  your  prayers.  If  you  can- 
not have  a  place,  choose  an  hour  at 
night  or  early  in  the  morning  when 
you  may  be  sure  of  being  un- 
disturbed.    If  you  are  despondent, 

138 


HOW   TO   TRAIN    FOR   SUCCESS       1 39 

train  your  mind  to  be  hopeful.  If 
you  have  no  pleasant  experiences 
in  your  life  to  recall,  imagine  the 
pleasantest  things  you  would  like 
to  have  happen  to  you  or  you 
would  like  to  do.  Picture  yourself 
in  a  commanding  attitude,  full  of 
courage  and  brightness.  See  your 
face  as  radiant  with  cheerfulness  as 
you  can  imagine  it.  Look  in  the 
glass  and  catch  your  expression. 
Recall  these  thoughts,  quicken  the 
emotions  and  sensations  of  hope 
and  courage.  Go  over  and  over 
them  with  the  steady  persistency  of 
a  student  bent  upon  learning  a  diffi- 
cult Greek  verb.  Soon  your  brain 
cells,  nerved  with  new  thoughts, 
energized  with  an  inspiriting  inflow 


f^. 


H 


I40 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


s( 


'III 


of  positive  thought-force,  will  work 
for  themselves,  and  your  Will  will 
will  you  to  think  in  currents  of 
hopeful  and  courageous  thoughts, 
and  you  will  view  life  from  a  newer 
and  higher  plane,  and  see  oppor- 
tunities you  never  saw  before. 
Your  cheerfulness  and  courage  will 
add  warmth  to  your  manners.  You 
will  grow  more  winning  unawares. 
A  gracious  manner,  full  of  hospi- 
tality and  cheerful  composure,  sug- 
gests self-poise,  self-respect,  and 
self-command,  qualities  that  we  all 
admire.  Emerson  says,  "  'T  is  an 
inestimable  hint  that  I  owe  to  a  few 
persons  of  fine  manners,  that  they 
make  behavior  the  very  first  sign  of 
force, — behavior,  and  not  perform- 


\\\ 


\  11 


HOW   TO   TRAIN    FOR   SUCCESS       I4I 

ance,  or  talent,  or,  much  less, 
wealth."  Do  not  despise  the  forms 
and  rules  of  polite  society.  Learn 
them,  master  them.  "They  aid 
our  dealing  and  conversation,  as  a 
railway  aids  travelling,  by  getting 
rid  of  all  avoidable  obstructions  of 
the  road,  and  leaving  nothing  to 
be  conquered  but  pure  space." 

After  you  have  acquired  mental 
and  physical  poise  and  have  ener- 
gized your  despondent  heart  with 
courage  and  cheerfulness,  project 
clearly  and  definitely  in  a  mental 
vision  what  you  wish  to  accomplish. 
Go  over  it,  just  as  you  went  over 
the  thoughts  of  hope,  courage, 
and  cheerfulness,  until  you  de- 
velop conduct  memories  as  the  chil- 


1^ 


142 


SUCCESS    IS   FOR    YOU 


11 


m 


■I 


N 


dren  do  by  their  ethical  plays 
in  the  kindergarten,  and  persist 
until  your  Will  wtVls  you  to  work 
steadily,  forcefully,  and  indomita- 
bly. Permeate,  magnetize  your  den, 
your  office,  your  room  with  eman- 
ations pf  success,  of  hope,  of  cour- 
age,  and  concentration.  Create  a 
vitalizing  atmosphere  of  success  so 
that  whenever  you  enter  your 
sanctum  you  will  be  uplifted  and 
encouraged.  Entertain  no  thoughts 
of  failure,  no  forebodings  of  defeat, 
no  distrust  in  your  powers  of  ac- 
complishment, no  matter  how  fre- 
quently and  forcefully  they  obtrude 
themselves.  Make  your  atmos- 
phere so  tingle  with  faith,  hope, 
courage  and  cheer  that  every  one 


HOW   TO    TRAIN    FOR   SUCCESS       1 43 

that  comes  to  you  will  have  his 
confidence  in  you  strengthened, 
will  be  cheered  and  stimulated,  and 
convinced  that  you  are  the  sort 
to  be  trusted  with  business  enter- 
prises. 

Concentrate  with  unwavering 
effort  on  whatever  you  do.  Re- 
member, if  you  go  down-town  with 
your  thoughts  in  a  chaotic  state, 
flitting  hither,  thither,  and  yon, 
you  will  ally  yourself  with  all  the 
chaos  and  irresolution  round  about 
you.  What  good  would  a  cable 
be  whose  strands  floated  outward 
and  inward  on  every  wave  and 
tide?  If  you  are  a  magnet  of 
sufficient  power,  you  attract  to 
yourself  thought-forces  just  as  the 


f 


144 


SUCCESS    IS    FOR    YOU 


positive,  sympathetic  piece  of  silver 
drew  all  the  particles  of  invisible 
silver  to  itself  from  the  water. 
This  is  not  nonsense.  You  can 
notice  for  yourself  that  a  man  who 
goes  to  his  work  with  a  trained 
mind,  who  has  methodized  sense- 
memories  of  business,  and  who  is 
alert  and  energetic,  is  a  positive 
force  that  attracts  stimulating 
thought  "  out  of  the  everywhere." 
He  proves  the  truth  of  the  old 
saying : — "  Firmly  drive,  firmly 
draw."  He  stirs  vibrations  of 
healthy,  hopeful  energy,  and  quick- 
ens confidence  in  everyone  he 
meets.  The  conditions  he  thus 
awakens  react  upon  himself.  Some 
psychologists  go  so  far  as  to  say 


HOW    TO    TRAIN    FOR    SUCCESS       1 45 

that  successful  operators  and  gam- 
blers make  themselves  magnets  for 
money.  Their  thoughts  are  so 
concentrated  on  money  that  their 
radiations,  penetrating  the  per- 
sonal atmosphere  of  others,  suggest 
money  and  the  possibility  of  get- 
ting money  to  those  susceptible  to 
such  influences.  Money-mongers 
quicken  the  commercial  feeling  in 
the  minds  of  others  and  focus  their 
thoughts  on  finance.  They  believe 
in  themselves  and  make  other 
people  believe  in  them.  Their 
very  spirit  of  adventure  is  a  con- 
quering force.  Money-mongers 
rarely  have  divided  interests  and 
therefore  reap  the  benefit  of  their 
loyalty.      Loyalty    is    a    spiritual 


p 


146         SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 

quality  and  even  in  its  least  com- 
mendable form,  it  is  not  without 
magnetism.  A  man  longing  to  be 
an  artist,  a  writer,  a  scientist,  or  a 
musician,  goes  down-town  with 
less  concentrated  attracting  force 
than  the  one  who  is  content  to  be 
a  business  man.  Many  of  these 
dreamers  go  through  life  becoming 
neither  successful  tradesmen  nor 
artists.  . 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

OTHERS  HAVE    MASTERED,  YOU    CAN. 

IF  you  are  dissatisfied  with  what 
you  do,  you  have  less  power 
of  attracting  successful  conditions 
than  if  you  loved  your  work. 
Love  is  magnetic  wherever  and 
however  it  is  expressed.  If  you 
dislike  your  work  challenge  your- 
self and  find  out  justly  and  squarely 
why  you  do.  Determine  whether 
it  is  laziness,  false  pride,  or  lack  of 
ability  on  your  part  that  makes  it 
irksome  to  you.  If  your  work  is 
so  uncompromisingly  uncongenial 
that  you  are  doing  yourself  physi- 
cal, mental,  and  spiritual  harm  by 

147 


148 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


pursuing  it.  leave  it,  for  as  Paul 
Bourget  says :  **  There  is  for  every 
soul  an  atmosphere  of  ideas  which 
is  appropriate  to  it,  and  outside  of 
which   it   cannot   endure   for  any 
longtime."    If  you  are  fearless  and 
energetic  you  can  do  the  work  you 
like,  or  a  phase  of  it.     A  brave  girl 
who  longed  to  be  an  artist  could  not 
spend  the  time  and  money  neces- 
sary to  become  one ;  she  became 
an    artistic     photographer.      The 
composition,  grouping  and  posing 
in  her  pictures  were  unusual.     In 
the  photographs  there  was  a  sin- 
gular charm  not  unsuggestive  of  an 
ideal  creation   of  an   artist.     Get 
into    your    right    circle.      Others 
have  done  so  with  success  and  you 


-ilfri  J«V._^.. 


. 


OTHERS   HAVE   MASTERED       149 

can,  if  you  are  willing  to  suffer  a 
few  deprivations  and  inconveniences 
for  a  time. 

A  man  who  wished  to  be  a 
lawyer  had  to  slave  at  news- 
paper work.  One  day  he  deter- 
mined to  study  law.  He  very 
properly  tried  to  arrange  his  work 
and  time  so  he  could  do  so,  and 
obtained  a  night  desk  upon  a  daily 
newspaper.  He  thus  secured  time 
to  attend  the  law  school  and  to 
study  law  during  the  day.  He 
bravely  continued  in  his  dual  role 
of  editor  and  law  student  until  he 
was  admitted  to  practice,  and  suc- 
cessfully established  himself  in  his 
chosen  profession. 

If  it  is  utterly  impossible  for  you 


il 


150         SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


to  give  up  the  uncongenial  work 
you  are  doing,  get  into  harmony 
with  it.  Every  rebellious  thought 
concerning  it  depletes  your  force. 
As  you  dissipate  your  force,  you 
may  observe  that  you  become 
soggy»  pasty  looking,  negative  and 
unattractive,  pitiable  and  repellent. 
Master  your  work;  others  have 
done  so,  you  can. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

SHE   MADE  DRUDGERY   AN   ART. 

A  WOMAN  of  fine  character, 
a  great  actress,  had  to  do 
the  housework  of  her  large  family 
when  hard  times  came.  She  had 
the  artistic  temperament  that  loves 
the  ideal,  the  aesthetic,  and  finds  its 
highest  joy  in  mental  work.  The 
menial  drudgery  of  housework  was 
irksome  and  repellent  to  her.  She 
bravely  determined  to  do  it  so  the 
home  might  not  be  sacrificed  dur- 
ing the  period  of  financial  distress. 
She  had  herself  pretty  well  in  hand 
and  did  not  allow  her  emotions, 
whimwhams,  and  moods  to  control 

151 


ill 


•'A    jf 


i 


152  SUCCESS  IS   FOR   YOU 

her.     She  understood  the  workings 
of  certain  psychic  laws.     She  knew 
if  she   faced   her  daily   round   of 
neverending    and    exacting   cares 
with  sullen,  rebellious  discontent, 
she  would  deplete  her  very  life,  and 
brutalize   herself,  and  be  irritably 
tired  at  night  and  inharmonious  all 
the  time.     She  also  knew  if  she 
approached  her  work  in  the  nega- 
tive, spiritless  attitude  of  dogged 
endurance  she  would  enslave  her- 
self and  destroy  her  spiritual  grace 
and  become  a  mere  working  ma- 
chine.    She  resolved  to  master  it. 
She  made  it  an  art.     She  took  the 
same  keen  interest  in  learning  ways 
to  simplify  and  beautify  the  end- 
less details  of  housework  that  some 


MADE   DRUDGERY   AN   ART        1 53 

women  take  in  learning  a  new  pat- 
tern of  lace.  She  did  her  work  as 
far  as  she  was  able  with  the  same 
exquisite  daintiness  and  lightness 
of  touch.  She  knew  the  best  "  tex- 
ture" and  "quality"  of  bread  as 
she  did  those  of  velvet  or  silk,  and 
in  her  hands  a  piece  of  bread  be- 
came interesting.  As  she  really  dis- 
liked housework  temperamentally, 
she  did  not  feel  the  thrill  of  joy  in 
perfect  accomplishment  that  genu- 
ine housekeepers  who  love  their 
work  do,  but  she  experienced  a 
glow  of  satisfaction  in  labor  well 
done,  and  felt  the  comforting  up- 
liftment  of  spirit  we  all  feel  when 
we  have  triumphed  when  the  odds 
seemed  all  against  us.     She  could 


154         SUCCESS   IS   FOR    YOU 

not  help  occasionally  thinking,  after 
days  of  especially  tiresome  cares, 
"  I  never  will  be  able  to  act  with 
grace,  subtlety,  finesse  again." 
She  would  sometimes  look  regret- 
fully at  her  hands,  roughened  with 
kitchen-work,  and  wonder  if  she 
could  ever  use  them  again  with 
facile  ease  in  expressive  gesture. 
Lo!  When  she  returned  to  the 
stage  her  work  was  finer,  more 
convincing  than  it  had  ever  been 
before.  **  The  gray  angel  of  suc- 
cess," as  Drudgery,  not  inappropri- 
ately, has  been  called,  had  not  for- 
gotten her  faithfulness  in  executing 
the  small,  uninteresting  details  of 
housework,  nor  the  cheerfulness 
and  courage  with  which  she  faced 


MADE   DRUDGERY   AN   ART        1 55 

the  distasteful  labor.  Among  the 
priceless  gifts  that  Drudgery  gave 
her  was  perfect  poise.  In  master- 
ing disagreeable  duties  she  had 
"gotten  hold  of  herself."  Self- 
mastery  everywhere  commands  ad- 
miration, confidence,  and  respect. 
An  actress  more  than  any  other 
worker  needs  this  self-mastery. 
The  public  pay  their  money  to  see 
her  at  her  best  in  whatever  line  she 
appears,  and  they  resent,  subcon- 
sciously if  not  consciously,  any 
appeal  to  their  s)mipathies  through 
illness,  timidity,  or  lack  of  poise. 
The  actress  who  figures  in  this 
recountal  had  such  absolute  surety 
of  touch,  such  authority,  that  she 
dominated    easily  and   graciously 


156 


SUCCESS  IS   FOR   YOU 


without  seeming  to  do  so.  She 
was  deft  and  flexible  in  her  move- 
ments and  more  subtle  in  her  in- 
terpretations, in  truth,  she  was 
more  artistic  in  her  acting  than  she 
had  ever  been.  She  had  experi- 
enced physical  weariness  and  dis- 
comforts ;  but,  wisely  directed  la- 
bor, such  as  hers  had  been,  proved 
wholesome  exercise,  and  unawares 
she  had  been  spiritually  beautified 
for  with  smiling  determination  day 
by  day  she  had  asserted  her  spirit. 
If  she  had  made  a  martyr  of  her- 
self in  doing  her  household  work 
she  would  have  returned  to  the 
stage  deteriorated  physically  and 
spiritually,  but  she  made  her  re- 
entrance     as    a     conqueror    with 


MADE    DRUDGERY    AN   ART         1 57 

greater  breadth  and  freedom  and 
the  fearless  ease  born  of  the  ex- 
perience of  cheerfully  mastering 
tasks  that  seemed  unspeakably 
burdensome.  Every  task  that  we 
master  adds  to  our  reserve  fund  of 
strength  and  spiritual  force.  Every 
task  that  masters  us  depletes  our 
spiritual  force  and  decreases  our 
strength  of  character. 


r 

1 1 


!f 


I 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE    MOTHS   IN   THE   FURa 

TOO  many  housewives  allow 
themslves  to  become  enslaved 
by  brooms,  brushes,  and  dusters, 
and  numberless  things  in  the  way 
of  useless  ornaments  and  furniture 
that  are  neither  necessary  nor  beau- 
tiful, but  absorb  time  that  could  be 
better  spent  upon  keeping  physic- 
ally wholesome,  mentally  alert,  and 
spiritually  awake.  A  wise  woman 
in  Boston,  who  realized  how  she 
was  hindered  by  too  many  useless 
things  in  her  house,  went  through 
it  and  noted  down  what  she  could 

comfortably  do  without.     She  took 

158 


THE   MOTHS   IN   THE  FURS        1 59 

down   inartistic  pictures,  ugly  old 
vases,  worsted  work,  and  a  hundred 
other  things  that  had  sentiment, 
but  nothing  else  to  commend  them, 
and  made  a  bonfire  of  them  in  the 
backyard.       No    man  or  woman 
can  be  a  success  either  in  character  I 
or  work  who  allows  him-  or  herself  \ 
to  be  hampered  by  things,  thin^^f^ 
things.  /^^ 

Do  not  exaggerate  your  needs. 
It  is  as  harmful  as  magnifying  your 
miseries.  Unthinking  individuals 
lose  all  power  of  self-mastery  by 
exaggerating  their  troubles.  A 
widow  in  financial  distress  and  har- 
assed with  cares  became  so  dispir- 
ited she  decided  to  commit  suicide. 
One  day  she  was  crossing  in  a 


II 


l6o         SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 

ferry-boat  the  marvellously  beauti- 
ful bay  of  San  Francisco.  The 
dream  of  beauty,  however,  was  lost 
upon  her  sorrow-weighted  eyes. 
She  was  planning  the  quietest  and 
best  way  to  slip  out  of  what  to  her 
was  a  most  miserable  world,  when 
a  friend  came  up  to  her  and  said  in 
distressed  tones,  "Oh!  I  am  so 
unhappy !  Something  awful  has 
happened  to  me!"  The  woe-be- 
gone  widow  asked  in  anxious  sym- 
pathy, "What  is  it?  Tell  me, 
perhaps  I  can  help  you."  The  very 
distressed  woman  wailed  forth, 
*'Well,  I  opened  my  closet  this 
morning,  where  my  handsome  furs 
are  packed,  and  I  found  them  all 
moth  eaten."  The  one  contemplat- 
ing suicide  gave  an  irrelevant  laugh, 


THE   MOTHS   IN   THE   FURS        l6l 

hysterical     and    mirthless.       She 
apologized  and  tried  to  express  her 
sympathy.     She  fortunately  had  a 
salutary  sense  of  comedy,  and  after- 
wards said  the  woman  with  the 
moth-eaten   furs  "saved  her  life." 
She  saw  herself  from  a  new  point 
of  view.     The  matter  of  furs  de- 
stroyed by  moths  seemed  such  a 
trivial,  frivolous  grief  compared  to 
her    deep    sorrow  that    she  was 
amused    at    the    distress    of    the 
mourner  of  the  furs,   and  noting 
how   she    exaggerated    her    woe, 
challenged  herself  and  decided  that 
she,  too,  might  be  exaggerating  her 
miseries  in  the  same  childish  way. 
She  decided  to  live  a  little  while 
longer.     She  is   now  a  rich   and 
happy  wife.    Beware  of  magnifying 


1 62 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


your  miseries.  You  will  make  them 
seem  bigger  than  yourself,  and  be- 
come a  despicable  coward. 

Entertain  no  thought  of  sorrow 
until  you  have  to.  If  a  telegram 
awakens  you  in  the  middle  of  the 
night,  do  not  dissipate  the  strength 
that  you  might  need  for  some 
emergency  by  imagining  terrible 
things  before  you  open  the  mes- 
sage. Entertain  no  thought  as 
you  try  to  coolly  face  the  difficulty. 
If  you  train  yourself  to  nurse  your 
energy  thus,  you  will  meet  sur- 
prises without  having  to  make  an 
effort  to  be  calm,  for  your  devel- 
oped conduct  memories  will  act  sub- 
consciously, and  will  will  you  to 
be  calm* 


■  A 


CHAPTER  XXL 

THE   WORLD    NEEDS   YOU. 

DO  you  not  see  that  it  all  lies 
with  you  whether  you  suc- 
ceed or  not  ?  The  uplifting,  help- 
ful and  successful  effects  of  this 
philosophy  have  been  proven  by 
common-sense  folk.  Prove  it  for 
yourself.  Make  yourself  over.  If 
a  dog  can  be  given  more  brain- 
power, a  human  being  certainly 
can.  Heart-power,  brain-power 
and  spirit-power  form  an  invincible 
trinity  to  redeem  you  from  despair 
and  failure.  "  Never  mind  ridicule, 
never  mind  defeat.     Up  again  old 

heart."     Remember,  my  comrade, 

163 


i 


»l       M 


^^ ,4  ***.•-•  .    ■* 


'» 


164 


SUCCESS  IS   FOR   YOU 


every  obstacle  is  a  stepping-stone 
to  the  one  who  knows  the  law  of 
nature  and  of  thought.  What  an- 
swer could  you  make  to  this  query 
of  Walt  Whitman  ? 

**  Have  you  leam*d  lessons  only  of  those 
who  admired  you  and  were  tender  with 
you  and  stood  aside  for  you  ? 

"  Have  you  not  leam'd  the  great  lessons 
of  those  who  rejected  you  and  braced 
themselves  against  you  or  who  treated  you 
with  contempt  or  disputed  the  passage 
with  you  ?  " 

Comrade,  we  are  not  alone  in  the 
struggle.  Even  the  flowers  have 
to  make  an  effort  to  reach  the  sun- 
light. Properly  directed  effort 
generates  energy.  Energy  is  life, 
life  is  the  manifestation  of  the 
spirit     Give   your  spirit  room  to 


THE   WORLD   NEEDS   YOU       1 65 

express    itself.      Use    the   forces     J 
within  you  intelligently,  fearlessly,     j 
joyously,      triumphantly,     persist-     \ 
ently,  and  you  will  succeed.     Get    ) 
success.     Your  success  is  my  suc- 
cess, is  everybody's  success.  Get  in 
swing  with   the   universe.     All   is 
rhythmic  and  harmonious,  do  not 
be  a  note  of  discord  in  the  univer- 
sal harmony. 

"  For  the  world  was  built  in  order, 
And  the  atoms  march  in  tune." 

Remember  the  world  needs  you 
and  you  need  the  world.  Is  it  not 
laughably  clear  that  neither  could 
be  complete  without  the  other  ? 

"  Now  this  is  the  Law  of  the  Jungle — as 
old  and  as  true  as  the  sky, 
And   the  Wolf  that   shall  keep  it  may 


1 66 


SUCCESS   IS   FOR   YOU 


11 


prosper,  but  the  Wolf  that  shall  break 

it  must  die. 
As  the  creeper  that  girdles  the  tree-trunk 

the  Law  runneth  forward  and  back, 
For  the  strength  of  the  Pack  is  the  Wolf, 

and  the  strength  of  the  Wolf  is  the 

Pack." 

THE   END 


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